Comparison of the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid - Essay Example

I. Introduction II. Thesis III. Comparison on the Roman and Greek beliefs IV. Comparison on the themes of the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid V. Comparisonon the relationship of gods to humans VI. Comparison on the relationship of fate to humans VII. Comparison on the relationship of the gods to fate VIII. Conclusion I. Introduction Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid have diverse themes but with three key roles of humans, gods and fate interwoven reflecting the similar yet somehow divergent belief of ancient Romans and Greeks on the importance of their gods on their lives. The depiction of how the gods and fate intervene in the lives of humans has obvious differences and has some degree of similarity in Virgil’s Aeneid from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. Though Aeneid and Iliad were not of the same author, they have similarities on their description of fate. On the other hand, a subtle contrast can be seen between Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey in describing the role of fate in human lives. In these three literary works; gods, fate and humans and how the ancient Romans and Greeks see their relationships were accounted by the Greek poet, Homer and his Roman counter-part, Virgil. II. Thesis This paper will comprehensively delve into the differences and similarities on the connection among humans, gods and fate. Primarily, expecting a difference on the works of the two authors is inevitable. The two authors came from different races; Virgil was from the Roman race and Homer from the Grecian race descent. With this as a premise, there are noticeable differences in their belief in gods as they have portrayed in their works. Although their works both heavily address the importance of gods and fate on human lives by making these as a major theme, there are evident differences in their description of these gods. In Virgil’s Aeneid, influenced greatly by the writer’s Roman belief on gods, he had mentioned the presence of household gods or Penates. In the second book of Virgil’s Aeneid, particularly on the instances when Aeneas was departing from the burning city and when Priam was killed. These household gods were not mentioned by Homer in his two works, the Iliad and the Odyssey. On the other hand, the Iliad and Odyssey had no mention of household gods. The works only mentioned gods such as Zeus, Athena, Poseidon, Hermes and other deities. Interestingly, the Greek gods mentioned in Homer’s works have their Roman counterpart in Virgil’s Aeneid. In Aeneid, the equivalent Roman gods of the Greek gods Zeus, Hermes, and Poseidon were presented as Jove, Mercury and Neptune. Dissimilarity in the relationship of these gods with humans in the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid are also evident. In Aeneid, the human character Aeneas in his journey upon leaving his homeland to search for another; received help from the gods as shown when his goddess mother, Venus rescued him from death at the Trojan War. However, the story entirely revolved around Aeneas’ quest to seek a new land to settle in and though he received aid from the gods, the events in his life were mainly driven by his mission of seeking a new land. On the contrary, Homer’s Iliad manifests the major part of the gods in human lives. An example of this is when Poseidon aided the Greeks in their war with the Trojans while the Trojans were helped by Apollo. Similarly, Homer’s Odyssey also portrays the gods having great roles on human lives. This was exhibited on the instance when Zeus and Athena conversed about the destiny of Odysseus and the evident help that Athena extends to Odysseus throughout the story. The difference between the works of Homer and Virgil also extends to the role of fate on human lives. In Aeneid, Virgil depicts fate as a factor in human lives that is independent from the intervention of gods. Similarly, an incident in Homer’s Odyssey also portrays fate independent from the gods. In comparison, Homer’s Odyssey and all throughout Homer’s Iliad, the gods had controlled the fate of humans and were constantly involved in the events occurring on humans. Fascinatingly, Homer’s works, the Iliad and the Odyssey has quite contrasting points such as the difference on how the gods treat humans, how matters concerning fate were slightly different in depiction in these works which were authored by the same writer and the difference on the relationship of the gods with fate. Comparing the two works, the Iliad illustrates how the gods intrude in the lives of humans more frequently than in Odyssey. Moreover, fate was slightly depicted in the Odyssey than in Iliad since at one point in the Odyssey, the fate of the main character Odysseus was not decided by the gods. Relatively, the influence of god in the fate of humans are also contrasting in the Iliad and Odyssey as it is more obvious in the story that gods intervene in the fate of humans in Iliad than it is in the Odyssey. It is also noticeable that there are quite some similarities on Virgil’s Aeneid and Homer’s Odyssey as both being accounts on two hero’s journey from Troy and on how humans were driven by at some points by fate without the gods meddling. If there are similarities on Virgil’s Aeneid with Homer’s Odyssey, then there would be differences with Homer’s Iliad such as the depiction of the role of fate on humans, the intervention of gods on fate, the relationship of gods to fate and the noticeably number of gods interfering with humans. III. Comparison on Roman and Greek beliefs Virgil was one of the well known Roman poets belonging to the golden age of Roman poetry. Homer on the other hand was a Greek poet who was ahead of Virgil’s time. This being the case, he orally narrated his stories in poetry. This divergence in their descent shows in the differences on their belief on gods but the proximity of their countries also reflects in some similarities on their belief on gods. This is also the same with their belief in fate and how human existence is influenced by gods. Their similarities and differences in their beliefs were reflected in their literary works. The evidences of the Greeks believed in their gods were dated way before the evidences on the Romans’ belief in their gods. This can be a basis on the reason behind the stark similarity between the Roman and Greek gods. The Greeks have Zeus while the Romans have Jove or Jupiter; Hera for the Greeks and Juno for the Romans; the Greek Poseidon and the Roman Neptune; Greek’s Athena and Roman’s Minerva; Greek god Hermes and Roman god Mercury; Aphrodite for the Greeks and Venus for the Romans; and for the Greeks they have Ares while the Romans have Mars. Virgil and Homer’s beliefs manifest in their literary works. The theme in their works Aeneid, Iliad and Odyssey were greatly shaped by their belief in their gods. Contrasts and similarities in the themes are the results of each of the two poets’ belief. IV. Comparison on the themes of the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid Themes in Virgil’s Aeneid and Homer’s Iliad an Odyssey significantly mention Troy. In Iliad, accounts on the war that occurred in Troy between the Trojans and Greeks were described. The Odyssey tells of the story of Odysseus as he journeys back from Troy after the Trojan War. Virgil’s Aeneid ventures into a similar plot as Homer’s Odyssey. Aeneid tells the story of Aeneas after Troy was destroyed. He was on a quest to find a new land to inhabit. In the two stories Aeneid and Odyssey, the human characters are analogous with each other because the story of both characters happened after the Trojan War; their stories still include the gods and both men’s fate. The intervention of the gods in the human beings are seen in the works of Virgil and Homer as the theme of the stories in majority are centered on the interaction of the gods, humans and their fate. Their differences though, are the depiction on the relationship and how each has an affect on the other. Furthermore, the theme of Virgil and Homer’s works also has similarities. Virgil’s Aeneid and Homer’s Odyssey both have plots that relate the adventures of a male character and how fate and the gods mediate in their respective missions. The works are also similar when the characters decide what their fate would be without divine intrusion. V. Comparison on the relationship of gods to humans Divine intrusion in human lives in Virgil’s Aeneid is evident when Aeneas’ mother, Venus, helped him by keeping Dido from Aeneas and stops their love for each other with the help of Cupid. Venus also helped Aeneas by securing the guarantee from Jove that Aeneas and the Trojans will be safe. In Aeneid, though the gods helped and tried to destroy Aeneas; his decisions were still the vital points of his fate. Contrasting to Aeneid is Homer’s Iliad. In Iliad, gods decided on the fate of the humans. Some instances when this can be seen during the Trojan War. The god, Apollo sided with the Trojans during the war by sending a plague on the Greeks; Athena comes to the aid of the Greeks as she leads Diomedes to gain advantage against the Trojans; and Ares in defense of the Trojans, sent help to Hector to stand against the Athena-aided Greek force. In Homer’s other work, the Odyssey, the main character Odysseus was mainly helped by the goddess Athena. One instance was when Odysseus was hidden in a cloud by Athena so he can proceed to go to Ithaca unnoticed. In some instances, Athena also helped Odysseus’ son, Telemachus when she concealed herself as a man and handled tasks for Telemachus one task was to prepare the journey of Telemachus by organizing a crew and acquiring a ship for him. In Homer’s description of the relationship between humans and gods in the Odyssey, the parallelism with Virgil’s Aeneid is noticeable because both of the human characters were aided with the gods along their journey. It is also noticeable that in Aeneid the gods merely serve as guides to the human character Aeneas. The gods in Aeneid help the human being towards his predestined fate and does not create the fate for the human. In Odyssey however, Odysseus is directly helped by the goddess Athena. The help Athena gave to the human character was to the extent that she had taken the form of a human to aid Odysseus to reach his journey without being interrupted. Comparing Homer’s two works, the god-human relationship obviously shows that the gods were constantly in contact with the human beings. In Iliad, the role of the gods in the Trojan War was well described. The gods then took to opposing sides of the war and in the latter part Zeus had also eventually put his hand on the war. In relation, the Odyssey accounts for the extensive help Athena had given to Odysseus while the god Poseidon showed his anger on the human character for killing Cyclops, Poseidon’s son. The difference in these two works of Homer is on the instance when in the Odyssey, the human character decided to live Calypso. This instance showed that for once, the fate of the human character was determined by him and not by some interference by the gods. These conflicting ideas on the relationship between humans and the gods can be also be between in Virgil’s Aeneid and Homer’s Iliad. Stated earlier, Aeneid shows the guiding role of the gods on the human character Aeneas without directly affecting his fate and his decisions. As opposed to this depiction of the gods, the Iliad illustrates how directly the gods involve themselves in the lives of humans. Also stated previously, how the gods allied with humans during the Trojan War. This intervention resulted to power clashes not between the humans but between Apollo and Athena which later on resulted to a decision that one of the warring human forces must be defeated to end the war. VI. Comparison on the relationship of fate to humans After tackling the relationship of the gods to humans, another factor that greatly affects human lives should also be regarded as an important factor in Virgil and Homer’s works. This element in the stories Aeneid, Iliad and Odyssey is fate. The Aeneid interpreted fate as self-governing in the sense that the gods cannot absolutely stop nor redirect the fate of humans. The fate of the human character Aeneas was to be a founder of a great city. In his fulfilling this mission, Aeneas was assisted by the goddess and his mother Venus but she did use her divine prowess to take Aeneas to his destination right away. Venus gave way to the course of fate to take place and she only helped Aeneas in minor things that seem impossible to accomplish alone in his human state except in the instance when she pulled out Aeneas in the middle of the Trojan War. In the story, Venus and Jove were discussing the fate of Aeneas. Again, in this instance, the god Jove did not use his powers for the human character’s fate to immediately be completed. Like the goddess Athena, Zeus had let fate take its course without interfering with Aeneas. Contrastingly, Homer’s Iliad renders the fate of the human characters as being directly controlled by the gods. Distinct examples of these were shown when Zeus decided on the Trojan champion Hector’s fate to die and Zeus used lightning bolts to change the results of the war between the Trojans and the Greeks. With these instances, it can be noticed that the human characters’ fate were illustrated in the Iliad as being entirely maneuvered by the gods due to their continuous meddling on events and for incessantly making decisions for the human characters. The other work of Homer, the Odyssey, human and his fate is also controlled by the gods but one occurrence demonstrated how fate was uncontrolled by the gods. The human character Odysseus in his quest to regain his household and overthrow his wife’s unruly suitors, was thoroughly helped by the goddess Athena. In one incident, however, Odysseus was made to decide for himself. In the event that he was with Calypso, he had to leave the island by building his own raft without Athena to give him a hand. At this one event, Homer had shown that man’s fate can be decided by himself and not by the gods. This instance in the Odyssey, it has resemblance with the events in Virgil’s Aeneid. In Aeneid, the fate of the human character was driven by his mission to meet his fate as he was merely guided by the gods and not absolutely manipulated by the gods which is similar to a scene in the Odyssey’s wherein Odysseus took control of his what his fate would be by deciding to depart from the island where he was stranded. The Odyssey and Iliad being the creations of Homer had some contrasting views on the relationship of fate and humans. Odyssey shows minor roles of the gods on the fate of Odysseus while the Iliad describes how the gods machinated the fates of the human characters. VII. Comparison on the relationship of the gods to fate With regards to the power of the gods over fate, the Aeneid and the Odyssey shows some similarities simply because both stories were maneuvered by fate with some manipulations by the gods. Iliad on the other hand contrasts with the two as the story extensively shows that fate of the humans was maneuvered intensely by the gods. These are exemplified by the instances stated previously. VIII. Conclusion The relationship of the gods, humans and fate in the Aeneid, Iliad and Odyssey has both subtle similarities and differences. The gods have a more intervention with humans as portrayed in Aeneid and in Iliad since in Iliad; the gods constantly interfere with human lives. These interventions are less in the Odyssey and Aeneid since these two stories have fate as the main platform. While as fate cannot be stopped by the gods in Odyssey and Aeneid while in Iliad; fate is frequently influenced by the intervention of the gods. Although the Aeneid, Iliad and Odyssey have their differences, their importances are considered for the historical values and some of the historical accounts stated in these ancient literary works. Read More