Gods In The Iliad

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The Greek writing “The Iliad,” written by Homer, relates the different life aspects, struggles, and roles each character experiences. A group of characters in particular have a determining position in the storyline. These groups of characters are the gods. The gods have an important role in the story because they are the ones who ultimately decide the outcomes of battles and related subjects. Although the gods are powerful and mighty, they are certainly not perfect as they are behave childish and selfish. Homer portrayed the gods in the Iliad as childish. Hera, Zeus’s sister and wife, is a great example of childish and immature behavior. Hera’s feelings towards the Achaeans are seen right from the start when Thetis asks Zeus to help her son,…show more content…
Sure they did seem caring and loving things at certain points, but not out of their kind hearts, it was because there was likely a double motive behind. If they did help someone—even another god, they would basically need a reason to do as they ask. Zeus and Thetis are a perfect example of this: Zeus helped Thetis because he owed her a favor, otherwise he probably would not have helped her. We can also see this behavior when Hera wanted to let Hektor’s corpse continue to be disrespected by Achilleus just because Achilleus was the son of her friend. Another example would be the reason why the gods decided to rescue Hektor’s corpse so that his family and people could mourn him. The case Apollo brought was how Hektor had always honored them and made sacrifices for them, instead of telling them how Hektor had a family—a young son, or just saying that it was the right thing to do. This behavior is seen constant throughout the writing, continuing with Hephaistos helping out Thetis—who had saved his life. This episode is seen in book 18, lines 395 through 397, “She [Thetis] saved me when I suffered much at the time of the great fall through the will of my own brazen-face mother, who wanted to hide me, for being lame…” Whether Hephaistos helping Thetis had a double motive because she saved him as a toddler is debatable, he probably would not had helped her if he would have gotten help from someone

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