Assess The Significance Of The Gods In — страница 5

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says ‘It was the doom of the gods which slew them, and their own wickedness’ (22.413). Penelope at first ascribes the act to ‘one of the immortals’ indignation at their violence and evil-doing’ (23.4). When old Laertes hears the news, his response is to cry ‘By Father Zeus, you gods are still there on high Olympus if those Suitors have really paid the price for their outrageous insolence!’ (24.351-2). The Olympian gods may not look like the embodiment of pure virtue, but it is important to the “>Odyssey”> that they do respond to the inextinguishable cry of the human heart for justice. It can be argued that the “>Odyssey<-” represents a moral advance on the “>Iliad<-” and that the Odyssean gods watch over the affairs of men with a more

developed moral sense than their capricious Iliadic counterparts. In the opening of the poem Zeus gives the keynote speech which seems to put them on the side of justice. He rebukes men for blaming the gods for their misfortunes when it is only too apparent that they bring it upon themselves. Aegisthus is a case in point. The gods sent Hermes to warn that vengeance would come from Orestes if he usurped Agamemnon’s throne. Later in the poem there is a divine presence of a kind not felt in the “>Iliad. “>When the companions of Odysseus have killed the cattle of the sun god, the forbidden flesh emits strange noises as it is being roasted. The mysterious light in the hall is attributed to a divine presence. Athene constantly guards the protagonist and appears to him in

person to assure him of continued protection. Yet Zeus does not say that all suffering comes to men through wrongdoing, nor does he say that when they are punished they are punished by the gods. The gods have foresight and warn Aegisthus, but they do not compel Orestes to do what he does. The point of the speech is to put the moral responsibility for action firmly upon men. The companions of Odysseus and the suitors die, like Aegisthus, through their own folly. In the “>Iliad<-” the quarrel which leads to the catastrophe similarly results from the free action of Agamemnon and Achilles. The moments of supernatural mystery in the”Odyssey” are included primarily for poetic effect. The relationship between the goddess and the hero is based on the kind of personal

affinity that underlies relations between men and gods in the”> Iliad”>. It could well be argued that the ingredients are basically the same in the two poems but that they have been mixed differently to express a tragic vision in one, and to serve the interests of a poetic justice characteristic of comedy in the other. 387