God in The Iliad

While reading The Iliad, I couldn’t help but notice how the gods were described. I know there are polytheistic religions, both in the past and present, but I never understood them well until reading Homer's work. Homer's The Iliad  is an example of how the ancient Greeks viewed God. They believed in a number of gods, such as Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, etc. But not only were there numerous gods for almost every aspect of life, these gods were similar to humans. Being a Muslim, the basic belief of Islam is to acknowledge and believe in One God. This belief includes not associating partners with God, worshiping Him alone, and not comparing Him to His creation or vice versa. Of course people are free to believe what they want, but because The Iliad is an example of people who did believe and worship many gods, this caught my attention. I like learning about religions and what people believe, so I found it uncomfortable, yet interesting, to read and learn the lifestyle and beliefs of ancient Greeks as depicted in The Iliad.

Most importantly, the gods in The Iliad can be compared to humans. These gods are jealous and selfish. This is seen throughout The Iliad. For example, the Trojan War begins with the actions of jealous and selfish gods. Paris, the prince of Troy, is picked by Zeus to decide which goddess deserves the golden apple with "for the fairest" inscribed in it. Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite want to claim this apple, thus they bribe Paris. He gives the apple to Aphrodite who has promised him the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen, the wife of Menelaus. Paris and Aphrodite get what they want, but trouble begins once Helen is taken away (Fitzgerald 280). This is a selfish motive of the goddess and only leads to problems for the humans. I found this jealous and selfish trait of the Greek gods and goddesses to be unlike the true nature of God. God doesn’t have selfish motives and He also doesn’t need someone else to do His work for Him. Unlike humans, God isn't selfish, jealous, or in need of assistance.

Furthermore, the fact that there are many gods and goddesses creates problems. As seen in the apple incident, tension occurs when gods/ goddesses compete against each other. In addition, they argue amongst themselves such as in the case of Zeus and his wife, Hera. Zeus promises to help the Trojans because he owes Thetis a favor, but he knows that Hera will not like it because of her dislike of the Trojans. When Hera brings this up to Zeus in conversation, the two bicker. Zeus says to Hera,

Marvelous, you and your guesses; you are near it, too. But there is not one thing that you can do about it, only estrange yourself still more from me… And now you just sit down, be still, obey me, or else not all the gods upon Olympuscan help in the least when I approach your chair to lay my inexorable hands upon you (Fitzgerald 306).

Not only does Zeus silence Hera, but he also threatens her! This again was uncomfortable to read because God doesn’t have a family like humans where he would have to compete, disagree, or make threats. His Oneness makes it possible for things to occur (like creation) or else gods/ goddesses would be bickering about everything and nothing would get done.

Finally, the close interactions of the Greek gods/ goddesses to humans is also worth mentioning. In The Iliad, Athena directly gets involved in human affairs when Achilles gets ready to kill Agamemnon if the latter was to take Achilles' "prize". Athena is sent by Hera to prevent any violence between the two men: "And Athena, stepping up behind him, visible to no none except Achilles, gripped his red-gold hair… 'Enough: break off this combat, stay your hand upon the sword hilt. Let him have a lashing with words, instead: tell him how things will be'" (Homer 295). Athena is made to get involved and do the thinking for humans. In reality, God doesn't get directly involved in human affairs like this where he makes "appearances". The gods/ goddesses do this frequently and favor certain humans, especially Athena, in both The Iliad and The Odyssey.

All in all, the behavior of the Greek gods/ goddesses was interesting to read about and made an impression on me. Although I don’t agree with the ancient Greek's belief and interactions with the gods/ goddesses, I understood the idea more that in the past, some nations were polytheistic. I've known this but didn’t get into the subject deeply until I read The Iliad. Homer's story involved gods/ goddesses that were selfish, jealous, had families and helpers, would argue with each other, and directly get involved in the world. While some people may agree with these beliefs to explain the events that occur in the world, I believe otherwise.

Works Cited

Fitzgerald, Robert, trans. "The Iliad." The Bedford Anthology of World Literature. Vol. 1. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin, 2004. 280+. Print.