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Seriously, Mount Olympus?-Lily Caswell

As I was reading the assigned chapters of the Iliad, it seems that most of the time the gods are fighting themselves through the excuse of fighting for whichever side they’re fighting on. But in Book 21, the gods have a squabble that they can’t use the excuse of the petty humans.

 

“Ares stabler of shields led off, charging Athena, shaking his brazen spear and dressed the goddess down: ‘You dog-fly, why drive the gods to battle once again with that stormy bluster driving your wild heart?’” (466-449, Homer) Then to summarize, Ares basically tries to stab her shield, Athena throws a huge stone (boulder probably) at him, Ares gets hit and crashes over seven acres, then Athena taunts him. Athena tells him that even when his strength matched hers that Hera plotted against him when he left the Greeks and fought for the Trojans. I honestly think Ares has no idea whose side he’s fighting on, as long as he’s fighting (which makes sense given that he’s the god of war). Then Aphrodite leads Ares away, with Athena showering them with insults.

 

Then Poseidon challenged Apollo to which Apollo told him to call of the fight and to let the humans fight themselves to death. “But his sister Artemis, Huntress, queen of beasts, inveighed against him now with. Stinging insults: ‘So, the deadly immortal Archer runs for dear life!... Don’t let me hear you boast in Father’s halls, ever again, as you bragged among the gods till now, that you would fight Poseidon strength for strength.’” (535-434, Homer) At that point, Hera bursts with rage and tells her that Zeus made her “a lion against all women… But since you’d like a lesson in warfare, Artemis, just to learn, to savor how much stronger I am when you engage my power”. (550-556, Homer) At that point, Hera starts beating Artemis with her own bow and arrow. I guess she wanted to add insult to injury.

 

Seriously, the gods really need to get it together. Not only are the humans petty, but they are too. Not only are the gods fighting against the humans, but their own family. To be honest, it’s sort of funny because it just shows how extremely petty and picayune the gods are and it makes us realize how much greater Jesus is than the gods.

 

I commented on Isabelle’s and Ian’s posts.

Comments

  1. Jamie PetersAugust 31, 2020 at 5:42 PM

    Your last sentence really speaks to the power of the Gospel as a whole and to the fragility of imperfect idolization. In Christianity, we constantly look to God for guidance on how to live our lives. In the time of Greek mythology, the gods were created by humans; initially, they would have represented everything good about their element, but because so many things go wrong within those spheres, the image of the gods is continuously warped until there is nothing useful to worship.

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  2. Rachael GregsonAugust 31, 2020 at 7:59 PM

    That last part was powerful for me too. It further proves the point that God is the one true Creator. He's the only one out of all the religions who sticks out the most, who has a different message. Most of the "gods" and "beings" in the others are as merciless and petty as the humans they scare, whereas God created us solely to be loved by Him.

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