Nature of the Gods in the Iliad

The Homeric deitys know they be better than the deadlys that serve them and do non care much when they fight and have quarrels. The gods can continuously withdraw from the battle and never have to worry closely anxious(p) or suffering that the creation live with every day during the war. This is where we descry the motivations of the gods, their relationships with mortals, relationships with from each one otherwise and the force-out and authority of genus genus Zeus.The motivations of the gods differ greatly passim the Iliad, including the legislations they have with soldiers who were fighting in the war. For example, Aphrodite has a special relationship with the fifth column hero, Paris. When he is wounded In a battle with Menelaus, she whisked Paris past with the sleight of a goddess. (3, 370-400) She took Paris away from the fighting because she standardisedd him because he chooses her as the prettiest over Hear and genus Athene in an earlier partitioning of the myth. She saved him out of her own honor, non for Paris life. Selfishness was matchless of the motivations of the gods.When the priest of Apollo has his female child taken by the Greeks and they refuse to give her back he prays to Apollo maxim Hear me, Silvereye, Protector of Cherry Grant me this prayer Let the Damns pass for my tears with your arrows. Apollo heard his prayer and descended Olympus crags pulsing with fury, bow slung over one soldier, the arrows rattling In their case on his back as the groundless god moved Like night down the mountain. (1 , 45-50) Because Apollo apprized prayers to him he sent arrows that rained down on the Greeks for nine days causing umpteen of them to die from the plague.The rea password Apollo retaliates is cause he feels insulted that the Greeks do not reward his priest and In return himself. He starts pop outing the Greeks out of selfishness and the believe of Keels_ Even the gods wanted honor. This motivated them to go to war with the mortals. The gods also value control and power. They use the heroes of each side as pawns in their war to see which gods go forth win and see which are stronger. The gods motivations differed from one god to the next, and this occasion tout ensembley caused conflict between them. The gods are displayed as one big, impaired family.The gods relationships with each there are based on distrust and abomination between each other. The gods have conflict about everything Just like most humans do. Their conflict usu whatevery plays out in the mortal world and Is willing to fight each other to affect the resolution of the war. Even though Zeus is the most powerful and threatens the others often, they still conduct to go once against him Just not in fighting him. Hear confuses him, Athena attends slightly of the heroes, and Poseidon helps the Greek side when Zeus is knocked out. They do this to show that they turn over they are smarter than Zeus and want power.Zeus realizes thi s ND says Hear you scheming blotch, this throw of yours has taken Hector out and routed his phalanx. (10, 15-MOM Zeus becomes furious with Hear because she tricks him into travel asleep for a gigantic enough time go she and Poseidon help the Greeks, which were against Zeus because he was helping the trojan. This was only a simple trick and did not Involve fighting Like most of the war. Athena says she will protect Dimmest, son of tudes, and she stands on Greeks side. Athena agrees to do this because she doesnt like Ares because Ares move Trojan and abandoned theI OFF his spear home to the pit of Ares belly, where the kilt-piece cover it. Athena seriously injured the god Ares that could not kill him because he is immortal. This made him back out of the war and gave the Greeks the upper accomplish once again. The gods were always against each other because of personal reasons and this caused m each humans to die because of what they chose to do. The gods seem to have a uniqu e relationship with the mortals in the epical poem. The gods do not actually care much about what happens to the humans.The gods do not allow something to append to the mortals based on this orthogonal force that predestines everything. The gods, especially Zeus, believe heavily in fate. Zeus tells the other gods that fears something may interfere with fate, If Achilles is the only fighting out there, the Trojan wont exist a minute against him I fear he may go on his fate and demolish the wall. (20, 20) He sent the gods into the war to stop Achilles from destroying the Trojan army before it was foretold. This causes much more death but that does not matter as much as fate to the gods.Not even the all and powerful Zeus would try to sees with fate. Zeus wishes to alter the destiny dress up for his son, and despite his superiority to the other Olympian (not to mention the other diminished gods and goddesses), he is unable to resist the authority of his daughters, the Fates. Hear even makes him not go against fate. Zeus says Fate has it that Sarandon, whom I love more than any man, is to be killed by Patrols. Shall I take him out of the battle while he still lives? (16) Hear says A mortal man, whose fate has long been fixed, and you want to save him from rattling death. 16) So Zeus understood that he should to change the fate for even his dear Sarandon. This shows us once again that fate is more powerful than all of the gods. Zeus does care some about the Trojan, but he is just repaying a favor to thesis, Achilles mother. Thesis begs Zeus Give the Trojan the upper hand until the Greeks grant my son the honor he deserves (1, 540-541) and Zeus does it. He made the Trojan army start winning battles Just because of a personal debt to a goddess. This shows us how much he really cared for the outcome of the war.Zeus was the strongest of all of the gods and the mortals did not hatch ere much to him. The power and authority of the leader of the gods, Zeus, is very prevalent throughout the Iliad. Zeus focuses on having the upper hand compared to all the other gods when it comes to power and authority. He never gives up the chance to remind the other gods who is the strongest of them all. Zeus was undoubtedly stronger than all of the other gods put together. He is even so certain of his power as to say that he could take them all on without breaking a sweat.Zeus tells the other gods These two hands are more powerful than all the gods on Olympus imbibed (8, 462-463) Zeus bragged throughout the spotless myth about his power. All of the other gods knew not to fight against Zeus so they all tried to outsmart him which worked on occasion. Zeus to the other gods father on. Hang a gold cable down from the sky. All you gods and goddesses guardianship the end couldnt drag me down from the sky to earth Zeus the Master, no matter how hard you tried. (8, 20-30) He knew he was that much stronger than all the others. When he told the gods they could int erfere they did.When he told them they couldnt they listened for the most art. His authority was unmatched by any of the other gods. Affect the gods at all except it excites them into doing battle with each other and choosing a favorite side. They gods may have fought the battle but their ability made them unable to die and they did not suffer make them far superior to the mortals that were fighting for their lives on the battlefield. The nature of the gods is seen in the epic through their motivations, how the mortals where treated by the gods, how they saw each other as gods, and Zeus strength and prowess above all the other gods.