Greek Gods In The Odyssey

Epic tales like the Odyssey always have a essential theme negotiated in them meaning that the story involves parts played by forces outside of the physical monarchy of mortals. In this case, these forces are known as the ancient Greek Gods. The ancient Greek Gods have many roles both in terms of framing the narrative and in the story of the epic itself. The Gods serve to put the story and the storyteller (the legendary bard, Homer) in context, they help readers to identify what was valued in a hero in the ancient Greek world, they also serve to characterize many of the characters by how they choose what relationships in the story they have with certain characters, and also by allowing readers to draw comparisons between various Gods and the

Athena chooses Odysseus as her champion and focuses on helping him – and she is so much like him. Both are clever, good in war and make good leaders. Another important function of the Gods is ancient epic is that they at times, directly and indirectly, intervene. The Gods who play the most prominent roles are Athena, and Poseidon. In the case of Poseidon, we see a wrathful and angry God. He does not like Odysseus and clearly favors Polyphemus in the Cyclops incident and, as a favor to the Cyclops, wrecks Odysseus raft. On the other hand, Athena’s intervention or ‘help’ is most obvious. Right at the beginning of the epic she gives Telemachus a great push and helps him to get started on the task, which will aid Odysseus eventually. At first in the story, Telemachus does not stand up to the greedy, parasite-like suitors: it is only after “Athene shed[s] a divine grace” (13, 12) does Telemachus confront the suitors and point out his distaste for them. She gathers companions for Telemachus, and she finds a good ship for his voyage using her martial expertise and also helps him steal away into the night as she sends the suitors into ‘sweet slumber”