The Greek Gods are not the all loving lord and savior with impeccable virtue, like in other religions such as Christianity - oh dear no. We've talked about this in class, primarily with the example of Poseidon's complaining to Zeus - to give a brief reminder, it went something like this:
"Hey Zeus I don't feel appreciated enough - I want to torture Odysseus some more but my Phaeacians kinda just took him to land and now I can't do much about it."
"Poseidon please we all respect you. Is someone disrespects you just screw them over."
"Wait really I thought you'd get mad if I did - well in that case, imma go crush their ships as they come home then stick a mountain up their port"
"Nah man that's no fun you gotta let them see their hometown, and have everyone see them coming home - then you turn them into a rock, so every time someone looks out, they'll feel the sorrow resulting from your discomfort. Oh then you can go stick a mountain up their port."
Obviously this isn't Homer's language, but you get the point. There's no doubt that this exchange shows the Gods' sadistic nature. I digress - the fact that after all these millennium of years, it seems that Poseidon didn't know what his brother was like, like what? How? His not knowing that Zeus would be fine with him smiting disrespectful people seemed a bit weird to me - I would've thought that the Greek Gods would've sorted things out within their time. Then again, the Phaeacians didn't really try to disrespect Poseidon, they were just trying to get a friend home asap... it's not the people's fault that they didn't know what their main God wanted... but who knows maybe it is. Maybe some prophet told them that and they just kinda forgot. At any rate, Zeus's act to make the Phaeacians suffer even more felt kind of like he was tutoring Poseidon how to torture people? As if he didn't learn enough from screwing with Odysseus.
My main point though is that while Poseidon caused wreckage because he was personally insulted, Athena wants to screw over the suitors simply because she has taken a liking to Odysseus (and Telemachus, to a smaller extent). From what we know, Zeus is only ok with Gods killing mortals if they have insulted him/her - a possible reason why Athena didn't just smite the suitors then and there. On the other hand, maybe Athena just wanted to give Odysseus and Telemachus the thrill of killing the suitors. In any case, Athena doesn't kill them, but kind of sealed their fate - even when some of suitors felt bad, Athena was like "nope you sit right back down" (this happened in the case of Eurymachus, if I remember correctly). She also makes the suitors laugh when it's most inappropriate, and rage out/show no respect to him when he was dressed up as a beggar. It reminds me of when you put two (male) betta fish in the same bowl - you're not killing them directly, but you're kind of pushing them to kill each other. The way that she tweaks how people think though for some reason reminds me of a simulation with various parameters - Athena runs this simulation and then adjusts the settings until she is satisfied. We can even liken this to tuning a piano - essentially anything where you can adjust something to achieve a certain goal. I don't know if Athena is more interested in seeing how Odysseus and Telemachus kill these suitors or more interested in making them happy.
Also random side note we've like known about the plan to kill the suitors for 4 books already, and after every book you think that someone's gonna start killing people but then the next book turns out to be another cliff hanger? Common Homer you just had to stretch this part out didn't you. -.- Also Penelope's still in the dark like what is she gonna find out after he kills all the suitors or something? She's like wailing and being like "god kill me now I long for him too much" and Odysseus is kinda just like "ehhh imma just come in at just the right time like all heroes do". Then again Odysseus was sleeping when she saying that. I'm ranting again soo yea ummm takeaways from this post I guess Gods like to play "how do I get this kid to kill this other kid?"
I feel like the god's really using the humans purely for their own entertainment. They are pretty much trying to put on a show for themselves because really what else do immortal gods have to do?
ReplyDeleteIt does seem as though Athena really likes Odysseus and Telemachus. She also makes it clear that she wants the suitors to die (like when Amphinomus can’t escape his fate since he is bound to death by Athena), but in a way, this makes sense because Athena is the goddess of law and justice. She wants the suitors to be punished for their disrespectful behavior. Thus, I think Athena wants to make sure Odysseus and Telemachus kill the suitors (and she’s definitely interested in how they do so), but in the process, Odysseus and Telemachus are going to be pleased (which may please Athena as well since she likes them so much).
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rima. The Gods clearly use humans for their own entertainment and to fulfill their own agendas (ex Athena wanting all the suitors dead). This portrayal is indicative of the way the Greeks thought of their Gods. They knew they had to respect them or else they would be punished. The way the Gods react to things they don't like happening is very human and draws an interesting juxtaposition in this situation between Zeus and Poseidon and Telemachus and Odysseus. Both pairs are trying to find the best way to carry out their revenge, but the Gods are seemingly less logical than Odysseus and Telemachus.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Rima. To the gods, Odysseus's life is like entertainment. For Athena, she wants a ton of blood spilled. She even sets things up for her own entertainment. Rather than having Odysseus try to solve things peacefully, she eggs him on by subtly influencing the other suitors to do stuff. She even keeps another more moderate suitor in the area so he can also get slaughtered. This kinda shows how the gods think of us as puppets only to be manipulated for enjoyment.
ReplyDeleteYou ramble a bit, but you still get the main point across: that the gods are definitely not in this solely for any mortals benefit, but mainly for their own amusement and goals. It definitely seems like Athena especially takes things a little far. The gods in general seem as if they just do whatever they want as long as it doesn't interfere with a prophecy.
ReplyDeleteI think the most interesting thing about the greek gods in the Odyssey is their interactions with each other. When Poseidon wants to make Odysseus suffer and Athena supports him, there is a conflict of interests between gods. However, Athena seems to defer to Poseidon for a while, Odysseus is on the island for many years before she finally decides to release him. This makes me think that gods try to avoid fighting with each other as much as possible, probably because of how powerful they are.
ReplyDeleteI mostly agree with how it is strange that Poseidon thinks what he is doing would be too far, and asks Zeus about it. I feel as though this was potentially done by Homer to show how important Odysseus was, because of how harsh they want to be. The gods talking about his punishment says a lot about how important Odysseus is. Also, the side note at the end doesn't really fit. This could be expanded into a another great post.
ReplyDeleteSo this is a kinda flimsy analogy but I remember thinking the gods were kinda like how the memes present George R. Martin, the author of Game of Thrones. There's a sense present in both of "what's the most aesthetically satisfying way I can make this character suffer and extract the ultimate angst from this situation"
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