Thematic Comparison: Divine Intervention in Homer & Virgil
Both works decently portray the horrors of warfare, and (albeit it in a reverent fashion) place the blame for this horror soundly at the feet of the gods. However while in Homer this intervention is largely capricious and relatively unmotivated, in Virgil's work it takes on a more motivated and historical turn in which the gods may actually be seen as working to some form of higher end.
Part of the difference between these two takes on divine interference relates to the purpose of the two works. Homer's epic, so far as can be told, was designed to educate and amuse and perhaps to make a statement about the meaning of warfare and deity. However, it was not designed so much to create a national myth of identity. The Greeks and the Trojans they faced were more or less of the same culture and lineage, worshipping the same gods and practicing the same lifestyles. Whichever one, that which was distinctive about Greek culture would have survived. It is likely that even among early listeners, there would be a definite kinship sensed between the warring sides. The purpose of the work was less nationalistic, and more dealing with the personal heroism transformation from rage to tragedy to forgiveness in the story of Achilles and Hector. The primary purpose of the Aenid, on the other hand, seems to be to create a nationalistic myth of the genetic foundations of Rome which might serve to justify its people, national characteristics, and dominions over fallen Carthage and much of the known world.
These separate purposes inherent in the work and its intended audience change the way the gods and the story will be portrayed. In the Iliad, it is possible to betray the gods as capricious and even dangerous because the war was on, and people could sit safely inside and look out at salted ruins without doubt or fear. There is room in this plan for some philosophy and ethics and other distractions. In the Aenid, on the other hand, there is less of a place for philosophy and distraction. The gods must be shows as the guides and founders of a proud nation, and their capriciousness must not interfere with the primary goal of the work to provide an ethnic and historical justification for the imperialism of Rome.
One of the first and most obvious ways this difference in approach is apparent is in each epic's opening description of its topic. The Iliad begins by inviting the goddesses (muses) to sing through the poet himself, invoking from the beginning a sense of mankind's place as a puppet of the gods. The goddess will sing of "the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. And which of the gods was it that set them on to quarrel? It was the son of Jove and Leto..." (homer, book 1) In short, the topic of the book is the anger and actions of men (Achilles in particular) which is directed and guided by gods who are far more capricious then they themselves.
The Aenid, on the other hand, does not invoke a goddess in the production of the work. The gods, for all their bravado thoughout this work, and for all that they determine destiny and daily interferences, are shown as being more regional and limited in their power over humans. While it does not invoke a muse, it does deal more directly with the actions of deity:
forc'd by fate, And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate,... What goddess was provok'd, and whence her hate; For what offense the Queen of Heav'n began to persecute so brave, so just a man;involv'd his anxious life in endless cares, Expos'd to wants, and hurried into wars! Can heav'nly minds such high resentment show, to exercise their spite in human woe? (Virgil, book 1)
So it is apparent that one of these two is founded primarily on humanist ideas of battle, albeit written by someone who invokes the mystic muses. The other is founded more directly on the idea of divine agency which shape the difficult creation of a future nation, though the writer himself has a more humanist perception of the world.
Of course, this difference in perspective should lead one to expect some difference in the behavior of the deities involved. In the Homeric epic, the gods are very casually dedicated to the battle. When at the beginning of...
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