With our view of God, it can sometimes be difficult to comprehend the actions
and thinking of the Greek deities. The Christian God does not tend to take such
an active role in the affairs of people’s lives, where, on the other hand, the
Greeks regarded direct involvement by the gods as a daily, uncontrollable part
of life. Needless to say, divine intervention was a major variable in the
equation of Homer’s Iliad. The gods picked who they would favour for different
reasons. Except Zeus: As the symbol of supreme authority and justice, he makes
judgement calls as to the other gods’ involvement in the war, remains impartial,
and doesn’t seem to get caught up in picking favourites. Even when his own son,
Sarpedon, was about to die, Zeus chose to let the outcome go unaltered. On the
other hand, Zeus’s wife, Hera, displayed the more typical actions of a god.
After Paris, a Trojan, judged Aphrodite the fairest over Hera, and, after her
daughter Hebe was replaced as cupbearer to the gods by a young Trojan boy, she
was quite resentful towards Troy and its people. Obviously she sided with the
Greeks and would stop at no length to express her will. Scheming and
manipulating she even dared to trick her husband, King of the Gods. Hera, along
with Athena, who was also passed over by Paris, is seen as the chief divine aid
to the Greeks. Being the god of the sea, Poseidon was another strong supporter
of the ocean-faring Greeks. Whenever Zeus turned his back Poseidon tried to help
the Greeks in the fight. Poseidon felt that he was somewhat Zeus’s equal as his
brother, but recognizing Zeus’s authority and experience, he looked to Zeus as
an elder. There were also Gods who favoured the Trojan side of the conflict.
Both Apollo and Artemis, twin brother and sister, gave aid to the city of Troy.
Although Artemis takes a rather minor role, Apollo, perhaps angered by
Agamemmnon’s refusal to ransom Khryseis, the daughter of one of his priests and
was constantly changing the course of the war in favour of the Trojans.
Responsible for sending plague to the Greeks, Apollo was the first god to make
an appearance in the Iliad. Also, mainly because Apollo and Artemis were on the
Trojan side, their mother, Leto, also helped the Trojans. Aphrodite, obviously
supporting Paris’s judgement, sided with the Trojans. Although she was
insignificant on the battlefield, Aphrodite was successful in convincing Ares,
her lover and the god of war, to help the Trojans. One view of the gods’
seemingly constant intervention in the war was that they were just setting fate
back on the right course. For instance, when Patroklos was killed outside of
Troy, Apollo felt no guilt for his doings. It had already been decided thatPatroklos would not take Troy, he should never have disobeyed Achilles in the
first place. As a god, he was just setting fate on a straight line. Achilles
laid blame on Hektor and the Trojans. He did not even consider accusing Apollo,
who never came into question, although he was primarily responsible for the
kill. Apollo’s part in the matter was merely accepted as a natural disaster or
illness would be today. This general acceptance of a god’s will is a recurring
trend throughout the poem. A prime example of this trend is in book XXIV.
Achilles, angry over the death of Patroklos brutally disgraced Hektor’s body.
Tethering Hektor’s corpse through the ankles, Achilles dragged him around
Patroklos’s tomb every day for twelve days. This barbaric treatment was uncalled
for and displeased the gods greatly. Achilles mother, Thetis, was sent by Zeus
to tell him to ransom the body back to the Trojans. One may think Achilles would
be possessive of the body and attempt to put up a fuss as he did before with
Agamemmnon in Book I. But, Achilles showed humility and respect for the gods and
immediately agreed to ransom the body to the Trojans, showing that all mortals,
even god-like Achilles, were answerable to the gods. This ideology would seem to
give the gods a sort of unlimited freedom on earth, although, the gods could not
always do as they pleased and eventually had to come before Zeus. Zeus acted as
a balance of sorts throughout the Iliad. He had to keep the gods in order and
make sure that what fate decreed would happen. For example, after Achilles
re-enters the battle Zeus declared that if Achilles was allowed to go on
slaughtering the Trojans with nothing to slow him down, he would take Troy
before fate said it would happen. Therefore, to counter Achilles massive
retaliation against the Trojans, Zeus allowed the gods to go back to the battle
field. In Zeus’s own interests, he preferred to deal with issues more personal
to the individual heros of the Iliad. This can be seen throughout the book as
Zeus attempted to increase the honour of certain individuals. Zeus knew that
Hektor was going to be killed by Achilles, and, feeling sorry for Hektor Zeus
attempted to allow Hektor to die an honourable death. For instance, when Hektor
stripped Achilles armour off Patroklos, Zeus helped Hektor “fill out”
the armour so he would not seem like less of a man then Achilles. Zeus also gave
his word to Thetis that Achilles would gain much glory showing his involvement
on a personal level. Homer used the gods and their actions to establish twists
on the plot of the war. It would not have been possible for him to write the
story without the divine interventions of the gods. Indeed, they affected every
aspect the poem in some way, shape or form. Yet, from the immortal perspective
of the Greek god, the Trojan war, and everything related to it, was only a
passing adventure in the great expanse of time.
