Essay On The Role Of God In Homer's Odyssey

When it comes to gods talking to humans we have always had two different ways in which they do so. One of them being like the God from The Hebrew Bible which only talks to people but never appears before them and the other being the gods from both The Iliad and The Odyssey which actually appear and speak to them. However, a god that not only speaks to their subjects but also appears before them should be one that is taken more seriously, but this is not always the case as we see in Homer’s poems. In book one of The Odyssey, Zeus mentions how mortals are always blaming them for all their trouble even though they try to help them avoid them. Zeus says how he tried to warned Aegisthus by sending “our messenger, quicksilver Hermes To tell him not to kill the man and marry his wife, Or Agamemnon’s, Orestes would pay him back” (line 43). And even though a god appear before Aegisthus to warn him of a horrible event that was coming, he did not listen and ended up paying the consequences. This goes to show that not just because a god appears before someone they will always listen to them, even if it is in their best interested to do so. Another great example is in book 16 of The Iliad when Patroclus is dies. Achilles had told Patroclus to simply

Unlike the characters in Homer’s poems, such as Patroclus who could have lived if he had only listen to Apollo’s words and turned back instead of chasing after Hector. This goes to show how a deity which only speaks to his subjects and never appears before them has more influence over them. Since, they do not know what he or she looks like, they do not take the words of their god for granted for he only speaks to them when it is needed and not always meddle on their lives by appearing as either their true form or taking on the shape of someone