Power Of The Gods In The Iliad And The Odyssey

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The Power of the Gods in The Iliad and The Odyssey Classical Greek culture heavily relied on the power of the gods. Individuals did not control their own destinies. Instead, the gods were responsible for the fate of human affairs. On the first page of Book I in The Odyssey, for instance, Homer wrote, “. . . so the god prevented them from ever reaching home.” This quote references the sailors ' wrongdoing. On their way home, they ate all of Hyperion 's cattle. The quote clearly shows that Hyperion, the god of the sun, has power over the sailors ' lives. Hyperion exercises this control after he realizes what the sailors have done. Presumably, he causes their ship to wreck as punishment for their crime; thus, he determines their fate. In Homer 's The Iliad, humans pray to the gods on several occasions. Humans ask the gods for favors and special requests. In turn, they hope that the gods will look favorably upon them and lead them to a positive destiny, or fate. For example, in Book I of The Iliad, Apollo 's priest, Chryses, prays to Apollo for revenge on the Achaians. Agamemnon, an Achaian, has Chryses 's daughter Chryseis held captive and refuses to let her go. At Chryses 's request, Apollo shoots arrows at the Achaians, which create a plague that lasts for nine grueling days. This scene illustrates that the gods are often willing to butt in on human affairs as they see fit. Since Chryses is a priest of Apollo, Apollo thinks