What Is Homer's View Of Religion

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Derek Marth Mosaic II Online Professor Fischer – Section 702 9/30/14 Midterm Essay The book Iliad by Homer (translated by Lombardo) is a mythological book about the Trojan War between Greek nations and the city of Troy. A major part of this event and story is between Hector, the Prince of Troy, and Achilles, who was god-like or nearly immortal. The story takes place in the tenth year of this war and tensions were very high between the two armies. The Trojan War and Iliad both reflected views of religion, political theories, and morals. The leaders of Troy are outraged because Agamemnon took Chryses daughter during an invasion. Chryses tries to reason with Agamemnon but Agamemnon dismisses Chryses pleas in very vulgar fashion. Chryses then…show more content…
The way Homer adds in all the gods, such as Apollo and Thetis, gives the readers a religious view of the war and a different understanding. Back in the time of when the Trojan War was fought many people believed in the idea that there was many gods and all of these gods were gods of different things. This is very different now where most people believe and pray to only one god. The manner in which Homer uses all of the gods in the story has a significant effect on the way we view the story. In the story Homer has gods fighting mortals, mortals fighting immortals, and mortals fighting mortals, and gods fighting gods. For example this can be seen in the quote, “As Achilles charged him, Asteropaeus, carrying two spears, stepped from the river to face him, his courage coming from Xanthus, who was angry because of all the young men cut down in his stream by Achilles” (Homer, Lombardo 407). The impact of the gods and religion in Iliad depicts how war was viewed back during this time. These are the gods that the people of this time prayed to and trusted in to help them in battle. I believe Homer is trying to depict this by actually adding the gods into the story and having them fight and interact with each other and both armies. Nowadays, most people worship and pray to one god. If Homer were to write a story about a war nowadays I believe he would add in that one god to depict what the religion was and to make the story more like a story rather than an explanation of the

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