The Impact of The Greek Gods on Greek History Essay Example

📌Category: Ancient Greece, Antigone, Greek mythology, History, Homer, Literature, Odyssey, Plays, Poems, Sophocles, Writers
📌Words: 457
📌Pages: 2
📌Published: 01 February 2022

The Greek Gods had a substantial impact on Greek society as a whole. Stories about the Greek Gods have impacted multiple aspects of Greek society. Epics written by Homer, like the Iliad, and the Odyssey are examples of this. The play Antigone written by Sophocles, and the Melian dialogue are even more examples of this. The Greeks' perceptions of the Gods’ behaviors and decisions guided Greek history, shaped the Greeks’ interpretation of justice, and set ideals for the people of Greece. 

The stories about the Greek Gods shaped Greek history. Homer was a famous epic poet, who wrote stories about the Gods. He wrote his epics during the dark ages of Greece. During the dark ages there was barely any written history. When the textbook describes Homer, it says, “he did not so much record history; he created it”(Spielvogel 111). This quote means that what Homer wrote about the Greek Gods and heroes was looked upon as true history, not just stories. Because the stories about the Gods were regarded as true history, Homer’s perceived behavior of the Gods' behavior to be directly influenced by Greek history. Homer's poems about the Gods, “ came to be used as basic texts for the education of generations”(Spielvogel 111) What the textbook is implying is that Homer's epics about the Gods were taught to many generations of people. Because there is really no other form of history from this time period, and Homer's epics about the Gods were taught to many generations. Homer's epics became a source of history. Homer’s writing about the Gods shaped Greek history.

The Greek Gods guided the Greeks' perception of justice. During the Peloponnesian war Athens gave a small island named Melos the choice to get wiped out or to submit to them. Melos responded to the choice Athens gave them with “But we trust that the Gods may grant us fortune as good as yours, since we are just men fighting against unjust”(Thucydides 3). What Melos is saying is that because the Gods believe they are just, the Gods will help them in a fight against Athens. Demonstrating that the Melians’ sense of justice was influenced by what they thought the Gods' decisions would be. The play Antigone, written in 441 BC by Sophocles, is about a girl named Antigone who buried her brother despite the king of thebes forbidding it. When Creon, king of Thebes, asked why Antigone disobeyed him, she said, “These laws—I was not about to break them, not out of fear of some man's wounded pride, and to face the retribution of the Gods” (Sophocles 510). What Antigone is arguing is that she was following the laws of the Gods, not some measly king. By Antigone this shows that she believes that the laws of the Gods are far more important than the laws of a king, and that the Gods guide her decisions, not some king. Throughout ancient Greece the perception of justice was influenced by the Gods.

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