Department of the Classics, Harvard University

Gods and Men in the Iliad and the Odyssey

Author(s): Wolfgang Kullmann
Source: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 89 (1985), pp. 1-23
Published by: Department of the Classics, Harvard University
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 GODS AND MEN
IN THE ILIAD AND THE ODYSSEY
WOLFGANGKULLMANN

R ELIGION in the Homeric epics has been an issue of classical

scholarship for some time. I should like, however, to pick up
one aspect on which no final certitudehas as yet been established, the
differencesbetween the ways the epics representrelationshipsbetween
gods and men.1
The first scholar to speak about basic differencesin the structureof
the plot of the two epics was Aristotle. In chapter24 of his Poetics,he
writes that, as a genre, an epic has the same structureas a tragedy. In
chapter 13 he speaks of the two types of tragedy. Apparently, he
relates the Iliad to the onefold type, which in his opinion is the best
one. As an example of the second type Aristotle does not quote
tragedies but the Odyssey,which has a twofold structurein which the
better characterschange from bad to good and the worse from good to
bad fortune. According to Aristotle, the pleasure deriving from such
a plot is less characteristicof tragedythan of comedy. This same con-
trast Aristotle seems to have in mind in chapter 24 also, where he

This article is an enlargedversion of a James Loeb Lecturegiven at Har-

vard University on 6 October 1983. The lecture was also given at the Univer-
sity of Minnesotaon 17 October,at the Universityof Coloradoon 20 October
and at the University of Michiganon 25 October 1983. I thank my son, Tho-
mas Kullmann,who translatedmy German manuscriptinto English.
'Cf. C. F. v. Nagelsbach, HomerischeTheologie(NOrnberg31884); W. F.
Otto, Die Gitter Griechenlands:Das Bild des Gittlichen im Spiegel des griechischen
Geistes (Frankfurt/M. 41956 [119341); E. Ehnmark, "The Idea of God in
Homer," Diss. Uppsala 1935; H. Frankel, Dichtung und Philosophie des frtihen
Griechentums
([1195112Munich 1962), 70ff.; A. Heubeck, Der Odyssee-Dichter
und die Ilias (Erlangen 1954) 81ff.; W. Kullmann, Das Wirkender Gitter in der
Ilias (Berlin 1956); A. W. H. Adkins, Merit and Responsibility:A Study in Greek
Values(Oxford 1960) 11ff., 62ff.; H. Lloyd-Jones, TheJusticeof Zeus, Sather
Lectures41 (Berkeley 1971) Iff., 28ff.

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2 Wolfgang Kullmann

calls the Iliad "pathetic" and the Odyssey"ethical".2SimplifyingAris-

totle, we could say that the Iliad is tragic, the Odyssey"not tragic".3
This seems to be a basic difference between both epics, as far as
human fate is concerned. I shall now deal with the differences
between Iliadand Odysseyin the relationshipsbetween gods and men.

I propose to begin by giving some examples of the differences.

Subsequently I shall try to interpret these differences. Finally, the
post-Homericdevelopment of the different conceptions will be looked
at.
Possible differences between Iliad and Odysseyshould not just be
considered for their own sake; they are of some importancefor the
whole of contemporaryHomeric scholarship. They would allow scho-
lars to examine critically some consequences of the "oral poetry
theory" of the school of Milman Parry, which considers the Homeric
epics to be composed orally. Of course, after Parryno serious Homer-
ist will deny that the formulaic language of the Homeric epics goes
back to a long oral tradition. But accordingto this theory, taken in its
orthodox form, all themes, as well as the Weltbild,the world picture,
underlying those themes, belong to the common oral tradition with
only the wordingof the recitationchangingevery time. The qualityof
the recitation, as, for example, A. B. Lord says, depends on the
singer, who is not, however, responsible for the contents of the epic
song he recites, these contents being traditional. The singer, this
theory has it, does not claim originality.4

2Besides, Iliad and Odysseyare called "simple" (a&rhTi) and "complex"

(lrErhyXEyivg')in this chapter. Here the conceptsdo not have the same mean-
ing as in chap.13 (onefoldand twofold).In chap.24 the compositionof the
Iliadis simpleinsofaras it doesnot possess"peripeteia"
and"anagnorisis"
(cf.
10.1452a 14ff.) while the Odysseyis complexinsofaras it is "recognition
throughout"(1459 b 15 8t~6ov).
3In relatingHomertoavayvoptoLr~
tragedyAristotlefollowsPlato,who saysin Republic
595 b 10ff.: EOLKEAELV
yap TOVKaKhwv TOCTOVTCVTpayLKWiV
aTaiToTOV IrpCooT
yEvE~eOaL. As for the criticismof
TE Kal jyEt/LcJYV Homer in Republic
8•&6cKakXc
II and III there is no doubt that not
mainly,though exclusively,Platohas the
Iliad in mind.
Aristotelian terms are used in some interpretationsof Homer by J. M.
Redfield, Nature and Culturein the Iliad: The Tragedyof Hector (Chicago 1975).
4 Cf. A. B. Lord, TheSingerof Tales(Cambridge,Mass. 1964) 99ff.

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 Godsand Men in theIliad and Odyssey 3

If it should be found out that religion and the functions of the gods
are completely different in the two epics and mutually exclusive, the
oral poetry theory could not, or at least not without modification or
furtherqualification,be appliedto Iliadand Odyssey.We would rather
have to reckon either with,a long development of oral poetry between
the fixation of the Iliadand the fixation of the Odysseyor with an indi-
vidual shaping of these epics or at least one of them. Of course, they
could not be both by the same poet.
In the treatmentof the gods the epics certainlyhave much in com-
mon. The so-called divine machinery in the Iliad, that is, the inter-
vention of gods in human actions, recurringin typicalpatterns, is also
found in the Odyssey. Athena's appearancesespeciallyresemble those
of the gods in the Iliad, whether she takes on the form of some
human being who fits into the situation, such as Mentes or Mentor,
or keeps her own shape, as a personal epiphanyor an eidolon,before
Odysseus or Penelope. Although exact interpretationhas suggested
that this sort of epiphany is, in contrast with the Iliad, comparatively
artificial,based on mere imitation and linked to some details which
have the appearanceof archaic superstition,5 the difference between
Iliadand Odysseyis, in this particularpoint, not so great as to indicate
any individual particularitiesof the Odysseywith certainty. In a gen-
eral form, this "divine machinery" is even found in Near Eastern
poetry as early as the second millennium B.C.,poetry of which we
know a fair number of epic fragments.
Things are differentwith the motivesthe poet gives for divine inter-
vention into human affairs. The poet of the Iliad interpretsthe world
by taking the passions of the gods to be the determining factors of
what happens on the human level. This is quite independent of the
respective moral qualities of these passions. For example, Hera's and
Athena's disappointmentover the victory of Aphrodite in the Judg-
ment of Paris determines the whole conduct of both goddesses in the
Iliad. This is all the more astonishing as their beauty contest on
Mount Ida is only mentioned in the last book of the poem; yet it is
the cause of their hatred for Paris, the judge, and his town Troy, as
KarlReinhardthas shown.6
Poseidon also has a score to settle with the Trojanroyal dynasty, as
we can gather in outline. The Trojan ruler Laomedon had once ill-

5 Cf. P. Von der MWhll,RE Suppl.VII Sp. 741, 768 s.v. Odyssee.
6 Cf. K. Reinhardt,"Das
Parisurteil,"in Traditionund Geist,ed. Carl Becker
(G6ttingen 1960) 16ff. (originally1938). See also F. G. Welcker, Der epische
CyclusII (Bonn 1849) 113ff.

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4 WolfgangKullmann

treated him when some compulsorylabour was inflicted upon him by

Zeus.7
Aphrodite, on the other hand, keeps standing by Paris, her pro-
t6g6, whom she had bribed in the Judgment on Mount Ida. This can
clearlybe seen in her epiphanybefore Helen in the shape of a familiar
old wool-spinner in Book III.8Their partisanshipinduces all the gods
to intervene frequently, especially to give encouragingtalks to their
respective prot6g6swhile assuming the shape of a human being from
their environment.9Within this frameworkof divine appearanceand
intervention the gods do not even shrink from deceit. Athena, with
the consent of Zeus (IV 70ff.), in Book IV 86ff., induces Pandarus,
who has joined the Trojansas an ally, to shoot the disastrousshot in
the direction of Menelaus in order to break the truce between both
parties. At least as dreadful is Athena's conduct at Hector's death.
With her utmost artfulness she lures Hector into des-
truction: in the shape of his(KEpSo-Vrq)
brother Deiphobus she exhorts him to
fight Achilles and then she leaves him at the decisive moment. In a
soliloquy, Hector becomes aware of his having been deceived by
Athena and of his imminent inescapable death (XXII 297ff.). Thus
his tragic fate is attributednot only to his own infatuationbut also to
false and deceitful action on the part of the divine powers. The gods
do, however, mutually respect their playing with the human beings.
At the beginning of Book IV, Zeus, in order to tease his wife, ironi-
cally suggests ending the Trojan war, to save Priam's town and to
render Helen to Menelaus. Hera's reaction is an outburst of anger.
Zeus respects this anger although the Trojans have made all the
sacrificesdue to him. He only announces that he will not desist from
his own wrath in the reverse case (IV 39ff.). The boundlessness of
unwarranteddivine wrath towardman can be seen when Hera subse-
quently invites Zeus to destroy the towns which are most dear to her,
that is, Argos, Sparta, and Mycenae, if only he would not interfere
with her wrath against Troy. The poet obviously does not even think
of the possibilityof one's takingoffense at this kind of conduct shown
by divinities such as Athena and Hera.
In a similar way the action of Apollo against Patroclusappears to
be insidious and unfair. The god beats him and stuns him so that
Euphorbosand Hector have the upperhand (XVI 787ff.).

I7liadXXI441ff.;Cf. W. Kullmann(aboven.1) 17, 27f.

8 Cf. W. Kullmann(aboven.1) 113ff.
9 Cf. W. Kullmann,passim.

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 Godsand Men in theIliad and Odyssey 5

In Book XXIV the council of gods discusses the question whether

to continue allowing Achilles to defile Hector's dead body. Although
the gods in general pity Hector (23), with Apollo mentioning princi-
ples of decorum, the poet tells us that Athena, Hera, and Poseidon
cling to their hatred for Troy. The eventual decision of Zeus to stop
Achilles may certainly spring from his balancingclemency; however,
the highest god does not justify it with ethical principlesvalid for man
but with Hector's always having made the due sacrificesto the gods.
We could therefore agree with WaltherKraus that in the Iliad human
beings attain a higher moral worth than the gods."' What is essential
to the poet is that emotional actions of the gods allow for a rational
explanationof fateful events in human life. As frivolous as the gods
may appear to us, their actions account for the whole of human
suffering and weakness. This explanationis given with great realism,
without appealingto an unexplorablenuminous power or to sentimen-
tal pathos.
In the Odyssey,things are quite different. The very first council of
the gods (I 32ff.) introduces another way of thinking. We witness a
speech of Zeus which is not directly related to the main plot of the
Odyssey."Taking the fate of Aegisthus, the adulterer,as an example,
Zeus, in a kind of cabinet meeting of the gods, expounds the princi-
ples of his rule over the world. Aegisthus had been warned by
Hermes not to kill Agamemnonand marryClytaemnestra. He did not
abide by this warning and, accordingly,suffered retributionfrom the
hands of Orestes. Men themselves, not the gods, are responsible for
their sufferings beyond their destined share. Gods, on the contrary,
guarantee "poetic justice" when they warn men against doing evil.

10
WaltherKraus, "G6tter und Menschen bei Homer," WienerHumanistische
Bliatter18 (1976) 29 ( = Walther Kraus, Aus allem eines. Studienzur antiken
[Heidelberg1984] 24). Cf. Emily Vermeule, Aspectsof Death
Geistesgeschichte
in EarlyGreekArtand Poetry,SatherLectures46 (Berkeley 1979) 123.
11With regard to this scene cf. W.
Jaeger, "Solons Eunomie," Sitzungsbe-
richteder Preuss.Akad. d. Wiss., phil.-hist. KI. Nr. XI (1926) 73f. ( = Scripta
MinoraI [1960] 321f.); E. R. Dodds, The Greeksand the Irrational(Berkeley
1951) 32; A. Heubeck (above n.1) 81ff.; H. Hommel, "Aigisthos und die
Freier. Zum poetischen Plan und zum geschichtlichenOrt der Odyssee," in
SymbolaI Kleine Schriftenzur Literatur-und Kulturgeschichte der Antike (Hil-
desheim 1976) lff. (originallyin StudiumGenerale8 [1955] 237ff.); K.
Riter,
Odysseeinterpretationen:
Untersuchungen zum erstenBuch und zur Phaiakis,ed. K.
Matthiessen,Hypomnemata H. 19 (Gottingen 1969) 64ff.; Lloyd-Jones(above
n.1) 28f.; W. Kullmann, "Die neue Anthropologie der Odyssee und ihre
Voraussetzungen,"DidacticaClassicaGandensia,17-18 (1977-78) 37f.

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6 WolfgangKullmann

There is a thbodic&e
in the Odyssey,as WernerJaegerfirst saw;'2divin-
ity is absolved of responsibility for the evil in the world. Athena
alludes to the consequences of these principlesfor what happens in
the epic when she gives her comment (I 47):

a anIokOLTOKa 6kkhho yE piot.

TOLaVTra
So, too, may any other also
OTL,~be destroyedwho does such deeds.

It is hard to understandhow the central importanceof this speech

of Zeus for the whole of the Odysseycould so often be overlooked. It
is not the actual contents of Zeus's statement which is importantfor
the Odysseybut the principleof divine justice it contains. The speech
of Zeus indirectlyexplains the plotting of Athena against the suitors,
who are analogous to Aegisthus. The interventionsof Athena mainly,
though not exclusively, serve the purpose to assert the moral princi-
ples of the rule of Zeus, that is, to make the suitors and the maidser-
vants suffer their merited punishment. In the wanderingsof Odys-
seus, divine interventions are based on similar principles, Circe and
Calypso excepted, who belong to folktale tradition. Poseidon is furi-
ous with Odysseus because of the blinding of the Cyclops, not how-
ever in the amoral sense of the gods in the Iliad Odysseus is not
totally innocent of what happens, if only because of his excessive
curiosity, which needlessly makes him approach the island of the
Cyclops. To this curiosity is added his insolence, which makes him
reveal his true identity to the blinded Cyclops when leaving the
island.'3Since, however, his fault is but slight, he will reach Ithaca at
last, which is tolerated even by Poseidon (XIII 132f.). Even more
fundamental is the moral aspect in the wrath of Helios to whom the
comrades fall victim because they have laid hands on the cattle of the
sun god, not heeding the warning of Odysseus. They break the oath
which Odysseus had been careful enough to administerto them when
he could not prevent the comrades from going ashore. The comrades
perish because of an offense against property, having been warned
against it before.14 This is totally consistent with the principles laid
down by Zeus at the beginningof the epic.
We see that the religious system which underlies the Odysseydoes
not primarilygive a comprehensiveexplanationof the tragicpatternof
human life, as does the religious system of the Iliad. The religious
system of the Odysseyrather gives something like a metaphysical

12W.
Jaeger (above n.ll).
13Cf. J. Irmscher, beiHomer(Leipzig1950)57f.
Gotterzorn
14Cf. J. Irmscher(aboven.13)64f.

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 Godsand Men in theIliad and Odyssey 7

foundation of the principleof justice; and this leads to a world picture

quite differentfrom that of the Iliad.
This cannot be expounded here in detail but only hinted at. With
all the realism of detailed description, the Odyssey,in another way,
appears to be quite idealistic:those who proceed with the necessary
circumspectionand patience and are sufficiently energetic, will, with
the help of the gods, reach theirjourney's end, as Odysseus's fortunes
and his return home seem to prove. Even events such as the con-
frontations with the Cyclops, Aeolus, the Laestrygonians,and Circe
can be mastered by man, if he has the right attitude. And although
the war may have lasted twenty years, the marriageof Odysseus and
Penelope is not affected. After such a long period of time the wife
can still hope for the return of her husband insofar as she can take his
circumspectionfor granted. Tragic complicationsare not considered
as possibilities. In the Iliad, the action of which takes place little
before the end of the war, things have changed since the beginningof
the war. Priam has lost the best of his sons and final destruction is
imminent. Some of the major imitators of the Odysseycould not
accept the hero's happyand successful return home after twenty years
of absence.'5In one of the Cyclic epics, the Telegonia,which probably
dates from the end of the seventh century B.C.,the hero proceeds to
the Thesprotiansand contractsa new marriage,returns to Ithaca once
more, and there dies at the hands of his son by Circe, Telegonus, who
was unknown to him. In Dante's InfernoOdysseus, as he tells the
poet in the presence of Virgil, does not even reach home, but, driven
by a pagan thirst for knowledge, goes on with his voyage, until he at
last founders near the South Pole. In Tennyson's poem Ulyssesthe
hero is impatient to leave Ithaca soon after his return. He sets out
again with unknown destination. The same course of action is found
in the modern epic of Kazantzakis,in which Odysseus does not care
for his wife anymore and his son aspires to power. There is always
some form of protest against the idealized ending of the Odyssey.The
view of man in the Odyssey and its hero attract attention in the
highest degree. His fortunes, as told in the Odyssey,nevertheless,
appearto be implausibleto many of its imitators, who prefer a tragic
world picture.
The same difference between Iliad and Odyssey,with which I have
dealt as far as the motivesof divine interventionare concerned, can be
observed in an even higher degree, when a comparison is made

15Cf. W. Kullmann, "Tragische Abwandlungen von Odysseethemen: Ein

Beitragzur Wirkungsgeschichteder Odyssee," Archaiognosia (Athens) 1 (1980)
75ff. See also W. B. Stanford, The UlyssesTheme(Oxford 1954).

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8 WolfgangKullmann

between the ways divine action is judged by menin both epics. In the
Iliad such utterances show much less reflection than in the Odyssey.
In the Iliad the heroes accept divine action as something fateful and
inescapable while in the Odyssey they give much more thought and
speculationto the gods' conduct. Take, for example, the scene in the
Iliad in Book III 383ff. where Aphrodite, the goddess, forces Helen to
leave the wall of Troy to return to her chamber to Paris, a scene
which is very characteristic.16 Helen, who is extremely furious about
this demand, at first refuses to comply but finally submits to the
threats of the goddess. It is only by a personalinterventionof Aphro-
dite that the poet accounts for, and makes plausible, the fateful erotic
ties between Helen and Paris. For all that, the poet contents himself
with giving divine action an anthropomorphicshape. He does not
presume to judge divine action. In other parts of the Iliad divine
action is felt in the same elementaryway. The resigned attitude Hec-
tor exhibits in dying is most impressive. The deception of Athena
who has left Hector after first having assisted him in the shape of
Deiphobus, his brother, is only mentioned by way of a simple state-
ment. The poet and his hero do not think of any criticism because
divinity is seen as an explanationfor the tragicnature of life, not as a
force guaranteeing justice. When warned by the dying Hector,
Achilles affirms that he will himself submit to death whenever Zeus
and the other gods accomplishit. There is the same resignationto the
will of the gods on both sides. In the Odysseythere is no equivalent
to this resignation. No dying person speaks of the gods in the Odys-
sey.
In the Odysseythe conception of divine justice also underlies the
speeches of men. In Book II Telemachus expels the suitors from the
house and, in the event of noncompliancewith his order, announces
(II 143ff.):

... EY aibOv
8'
86vOC0v • 8
EOE a;,
lCo1oooaL9
a' KE TroOL ZEi) 84o-tL pya yEv•o-OaL
KEV t7raUVrLra
V'VTOLVOL 860VUaVbETOGOEV
E•ELCTa J5oLoo•E.
... But I will call upon the gods that are forever, if haply
Zeus may grant that deeds of requital may be wrought.
Without atonement then you would perish within my halls.

16Above n.8.

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 Godsand Men in theIliad and Odyssey 9

Zeus immediately sends a bird of omen so as to confirm this

announcement. It is in exactly this way that the suitors will eventually
perish in Book XXII. Of course, the gods can be invoked in the Iliad
as well, but in quite another way. When in Book I the Achaeans have
taken from Chryses, the priest, his daughter Chryseis, Chryses asks
Apollo for help, in consideration of a temple he erected and the
sacrifices he made. The idea of Zeus or any other god punishing
injustice in general is quite foreign to the Iliad. The gods reciprocate
for previous favors accordingto the principledo ut des. In Book XIV
of the OdysseyEumaeus gives Odysseus food and declares with refer-
ence to the doings of the suitors (83f.):

iV•v ox•XhLa pya 8OEol~uKape;

oi0
&hhXX 8LK7)VTOVrL Kal ato-,ta o•X.EovOLv,
TOV.
EpypavOp'Jr
The blessed gods don't love reckless deeds, but they honor
justice and the righteousdeeds of men.

In Book XXIV 351f. the punishment of the suitors is felt by Laertes

as a confirmationof the existence of the gods:

ZEi, 7TaTEP,
TEpa ET' ETE,OEOL Kara IJaKpov"Okvi'Tov,
Et aTaoTOahovifpLv
TEOV /"VPrp1O7)PE E-rrLav.
Father Zeus, truly you gods still exist on wide Olympus, if
really the suitors paid for their reckless presumption.

That is, the belief that the gods exist is dependent on the manifesta-
tion of justice in the world, almost in the same manner as for some
charactersin Euripides'plays. We will see later on in which way this
view was indeed adopted by Euripides. In the Iliad, no such concep-
tion of the gods is found. However, it is inconceivablethat this idea
should have had no forerunnerin popularbelief. Indeed, in the Iliad,
there is one passage which shows that Zeus had something to do with
justice in the poet's time, though not in his epic; Zeus has probably
been consideredas a guardianover the office of a judge. Accordingto
a simile in Book XVI 384ff., he sends tempest when he is angry with
people who give crooked judgments, violatingjustice. Some scholars
have taken these verses to be spurious and Hesiodic.17 It is true that

17The verses 387f. are cancelled by W. Leaf ad loc. and P. Von der Mihll,
Kritisches Hypomnema zur Ilias (Basel 1952) 247. Conversely, H. Lloyd-Jones
(above n.1) 6 claims that they are not only authentic but also consistent with
the theology of the Iliad as a whole. A. Lesky, "Homeros" in RE Suppl. XI

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10 WolfgangKullmann

this function of Zeus is no factor in the action of the Iliad. But in the
poet's environment this idea might have existed. It may perhaps be
said that one function of Zeus in popularreligion, that of protection
of jurisdiction,has been developed in the Odysseyinto a conception of
the gods as guaranteeinga comprehensive moral world order. One
can also cite Menelaus's hope for the help of Zeus Xenios in XIII
620ff. which likewise does not play a part in the plot of the Iliad.
Another remotely related belief, the invocation of Zeus and other
gods as witnesses of oaths is, of course, also known to the poet of the
Iliad, as well as the related idea that because of their power gods also
take upon themselves the task of punishing the perjured (III 298ff.,
VII 411, X 329ff., XIX 258ff., cf. XV 36ff.).18After the shot of Pan-
darus, Agamemnon is sure that Zeus will some day punish the Tro-
jans, who with that shot have committed perjury,and bring about the
destruction of Troy. The same conviction of divine punishment for
the perjuredis found on both sides in several other instances as well,
such as VII 345ff., 400ff. Antenor expects Troy to come to harm if
Helen is not handed over. Diomedes maintains that even someone
very stupid can perceive that the Trojans are bound for destruction.
There is no doubt that popularbelief has suggested the conception of
punishment of the perjuredto the poet of the Iliad. In its core, this
conception may even date from "predeistic" times. It is, however,
very striking, that this conception does not keep the poet of the Iliad
from giving a very detailed account of how Athena, together with
Hera and with the consent of Zeus, provokes the violation of the
truce by Pandarus. Lloyd-Jonesis certainlyright that in popularbelief
as describedin the Iliad there are some traces which later on will lead
to the view of Zeus guaranteeingjustice.19But the crucialpoint is that
the plot of the Iliad is dominated by the idea that the gods are also
responsiblefor all evil and irrationalevents in the world.
The different conception of the gods in the Odysseyimplies a
greater remoteness of man from the deity, i.e., greater independence
and responsibility. In the Odyssey,Odysseus is the prototypeof a man
who fits into this view of divinity. When Zeus declaresin the council
of gods that man is himself responsible for his doings-thinking

726 ( = Sonderausgabe,Stuttgart [1967] 40), connects the passage with the

morals of the lower class in contrastto the morals of the nobles. See also W.
Burkert,"OEOlNOHINOYKAAEFONTEI,"Mus. Helv. 38 (1981) 195ff., esp.
199, and Griechische Religion der archaischen und klassischen Epoche (Stuttgart
1977) 375.
18Cf. W. Burkert, GriechischeReligion (above n.17) 377f.
19H. Lloyd-Jones(above n.1) 5.

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 Godsand Men in theIliad and Odyssey 11

mainly about the negative side-Odysseus comes up to this principle

in a positive way. The comrades and the suitors who perish because
of their own guilt serve mainly as a foil to Odysseus, who embodies
the opposite qualities. By means of his energy, circumspection,and
discretion he manages to get through every situation of life. How
self-confident man can be when confronting a god becomes particu-
larly evident in the tempest in which Odysseus gets caught after leav-
ing Calypso on the raft. In Book V 333ff. when he is in the greatest
distress, Ino-Leucothea, a sea goddess, appears to him. She advises
him to leave the raft and offers him her kerchief as a life vest. Odys-
seus reacts in a way quite different from what one would expect from
the heroes of the Iliad. He does not think of immediatelyseizing the
opportunity. He is, on the contrary, very reluctant and declares his
intention to stay on the raft as long as he can manage. He expresses
his wish to rely on his own human technology as long as possible and
says that putting one's trust in god is only sensible when technology
and one's own skill do not help anymore and it is no longer possible
to "make plans" (Tpovoo-aaL). Things eventually turn out to be as
predicted. Toward the deity Odysseus feels much more autonomous
than could be expected from the point of view of the Iliad. The
rp6'votaof Odysseus is a quality which is quite characteristicof this
autonomy.
Finally, I should like to set against each other two famous
reflections on man's attitude toward fate and the deity. In Book
XXIV of the Iliad, 525ff., the tragic view of the world which prevails
in the Iliad comes out particularlyclearly.20 Achilles takes compassion
on old Priam when the latter entreats him to release the body of Hec-
tor, his son, on receipt of ransom. Achilles comforts him with the
allegory of the two casks in the palace of Zeus, containinggood and
bad gifts. In the best case man gets mixed gifts from these casks; or
else he only partakesof bad gifts. At the same time it is clear that the
distributionof these gifts depends on fate and not on any moral quali-
ties. He who is given bad gifts and is wretched, Achilles continues, is
not held in any esteem, neither by gods nor man. This lot is a sign of
being abandoned by the gods, a lot which one has to submit to.
Priam himself should submit to fate, as well as Peleus and Achilles
himself.
There is a marked contrast between this passage and the warning
speech in the Odyssey,with which Odysseus in the disguise of a

20 See also E. R. Dodds (aboven.ll) 29, who, withrespectto IliadXXIV

525f., rightly says: "Achilles ... pronounces the tragic moral of the whole
poem."

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12 WolfgangKullmann

mendicant addresses Amphinomus, who is the most sensible one of

all the suitors (XVIII 125ff.).21In this speech a basic anthropological
statement is made which allows for inferences about the poet's view
of the gods. Nothing, he declares, is more liable to be ruined than
man. As long as he is well-off, he thinks nothing bad can happen to
him. When, however, the gods accomplish bad things, he is
extremely distressed (XVIII 135: TEoLr7)L
6OvpY ci. Schadewaldt).22
Subsequently,the alleged fate of the beggarhimself (who is Odysseus
in disguise) is given as an example. He had done much evil before he
became a beggar, he says. The conclusion is drawn that one should
not act totally unlawfullyand that one should quietly accept the gifts
of the gods and not act criminallyas the suitors do. Even if the gods
are not explicitly mentioned as punishers, there is no doubt that this
is implied-in line with the speech of Zeus at the beginning, and also
in line with the ending of the Odyssey.The speech is one of the warn-
ings which precede the catastrophe, as is the message of Hermes in
the case of Aegisthus. It is quite in keeping with the invocationof the
gods by Telemachus (II 143ff.), who asks for retributionshould the
suitors continue to lay hands on the goods of the house. The speech
of Odysseus is also in keeping with the theodicheof the speech of Zeus
in Book I. According to Odysseus, men grumble unjustly (cf. XVIII
135 &EKa(O6AEvo;1) when the gods accomplish bad things (134 Xvypa,).
While the cask allegory in the Iliad symbolizes the tragic fate allotted
to man by the gods, the speech of Odysseus is intended to show that
correctbehavior towardthe gods may save man from coming to harm.

How can this differencebetween the two epics be accountedfor?

The difference appears to be so great that it cannot be assumed
that both epics are equally fortuitous actualizations of traditional
heroic myths of a common and uniform oral cultureas they should be
according to the orthodox oral poetry theory. In the same way the
Odysseycannot be by the same poet as the Iliad.
It is true that a consistent attempt to harmonize completely the
conceptions of divine action has never been undertaken. Some scho-
lars have tried, however, to confine the conception of the gods in the
Odysseywhich I have just outlined to some partsof this epic. Werner
21See W. Kullmann(above
n.ll) 44.
22See W. Schadewaldt,Homer: Die Odyssee,transl. (Zurich-Stuttgart1966)
447f.

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 Godsand Men in theIliad and Odyssey 13

Jaeger, for example, took the great speech of Zeus at the beginningto
be "new,"23 and Schadewaldtascribed it to the poet "B," while,
according to him, the poet "A" is identical with the poet of the
Iliad.24He tried, moreover, to clear from the Odysseypassages that do
not fit into the view of the world which is given in the Iliadby declar-
ing these passages to be spurious:this he does with Book XII. When
Odysseus could not prevent his comrades from going ashore, he
makes them swear an oath not to lay hands on the oxen which belong
to the sun god. Schadewaldtcomments: "Lines 296-304 provoke the
suspicion of being inserted, this insertion being made to the
purpose--contrary to the main tendency of the story as otherwise
told-to charge the comrades of Odysseus with so grievous a crime
that their subsequent destruction appears to be brought about by
themselves and to be the just outcome of their own guilt, in the
strictest sense of the word 'just.'"
Although Schadewaldtis quite right in this interpretationof the
function of the oath, his analyticalconclusions are not convincing. He
thinks that the comradesbecome guilty in the text of the poet "A" as
well, but with "extenuating circumstances." The comrades, he points
out, only lay hands on the oxen when all the other supplies are
exhausted. Their fault, he says, becomes a real crime only in the text
of "B."
But even if there were "extenuatingcircumstances"and even if no
oath had been sworn, guilt would remain guilt. And when the gods
consequently intervene to punish, this is clearlycontraryto their func-
tion in the Iliad. Hector, for example, does not incur any guilt com-
parable to that of Odysseus's comrades. He is infatuated, does not
give heed to warningsand is also considered to be responsiblefor his
doings: he does not, however, commit any offense against propertyor
any other moral offense. This is where his tragedylies. There is no
such thing for the comradesof Odysseus. It is impossibleto harmon-
ize the Odysseywith the Iliad by cutting out certain portions of the
text, as Schadewaldtdoes. The specific moral views permeate the
whole Odyssey. Even if there was no oath, the guilt of the comrades
would only be slightly less grievous.
The same is the case with the suitors. The mentioning of the fate
of Aegisthus at the beginningof the epic suggests that it was the myth
of the Atreidai which has decisively formed the view of the suitors

23W. Jaeger (above n.11) 73f.

24 W.
Schadewaldt,"Der Helioszorn in der Odyssee," StudiL. Castiglioni2
(Florence 1960) 861ff., esp. 868 = Hellas und Hesperien.GesammelteSchriften
zurAntikeundzurneuerenLiteratur(Stuttgart-Bern211970) 93ff., esp. 98f.

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14 WolfgangKullmann

taken in the Odyssey. It has been found out that these suitors, who
take possession of the house of Odysseus and commit crimes, are not
in keeping with the motif of Penelope's stratagemof weaving. It was
probably only the parallel case of Aegisthus which has brought the
poet of our epic to make the suitors parasitesin the house of Odys-
seus. The stratagemof weaving presupposesan originalself-restraint
of the suitors. The novella motif of the original story, Odysseus's
coming home shortly before the marriageand his killing the suitors,25
is superseded by the motif of the moral vindicationfor his murdering
the suitors, which lies in their overbearing conduct in the house of
Odysseus. In our Odyssey,the old novella motif is only left in a rather
rudimentary form. Fritz Wehrli discovered this point some time
ago.26
Now that we have established the incompatibilityof the religious
conceptions of the two epics, the question arises how they are related
to each other. The opinion is widely held, that the view of the gods in
the Odysseyas comparedto that of the Iliad announces a new epoch.
The fact that the gods are more ethical in the Odysseyis taken to be
the sign of a new age, and the view of religion in the Odyssey,accord-
ing to Werner Jaeger, E. R. Dodds, A. W. H. Adkins,27and others
reflects a "more advanced" state in the history of the human mind.
It is, however, to be doubted that one view of the gods should not
only be formulated later than the other but also have developed
organicallyfrom the first one. The difference between the two views
of religion is too fundamentalto allow such an assumption. There are
many indicationsthat in the two epics two different religious concep-
tions are embodied, which in their core are independent from each

25I take a novella,accordingto Goethe's

definition,to be an "unerh6rte
Begebenheit,"an event unheardof (J. P. Eckermann, mitGoethein
Gespriiche
den letztenJahrenseines Lebens,29 January1827). As for the originalnovella
cf. A. Lesky(aboven.17)801f.( = Sonderausgabe
motifof the Odyssey 115f.);
R. Friedrich,Stilwandelim homerischen
Epos:Studienzur Poetikund Theorieder
epischen (Heidelberg1975)132ff. Parallelsfromliterature
Gattungen are listed
in W. Spletstosser, Der heimkehrende
Gatte und sein Weibin der Weltlitteratur
(Berlin1899)31ff.
26F.Wehrli,"Penelopeund Telemachos,"Mus.Helv.16 (1959)228ff.;cf.
U. H1lscher,"Die Atridensage in der Odyssee,"Festschrift
Alewyn(Cologne-
Graz1967)Iff., and GottingerGelehrte 228 (1976)196;W. Kullmann,
Anzeigen
"Die neue Anthropologie" (aboven.11)42f.;A. D. Skiadas,"Ta7rap'&8EtyLYa
r70o AlyLoov Kr X'oj r V OVr/7V ('08'lOELa,
VO a 32-43)," Archaiognosia
• 7•j
(Athens) 1 (1980) llff.
27W.Jaeger(above n.ll) 74; E. R. Dodds (above n.ll) 32; A. W. H.
Adkins(aboven.1) 65.

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 Godsand Men in theIliad and Odyssey 15

other and only partly conditioned by the time in which they were
given expression. With regard to the conceptions of the gods,
Aristotle's typologicaldistinction between the two epics in Poetics,ch.
24, where he declares the Iliad to be pathetic and the Odysseyethical,
seems to be confirmed.
Let us consider the assumption of a development of religious
thinking from the Iliad to the Odysseyin detail. The Iliadic view of
the gods must not be misconstrued as being primitive. It is quite
different from the belief prevalent in many cultures in some sort of
higher beings who dominate human life only because of their greater
power. In the Iliad, men act accordingto the decision of their own
will and are nevertheless influenced in their actions by the gods, for
better or for worse.28Divine interventionmostly takes place indirectly,
by way of exhortation, often in the shape of a person who is to be
thought to be present anyway. This interventiondoes not clear people
from being responsiblefor their doings, even if they sometimes blame
the gods for their predicament. It does, however, account for the fact
that people have to suffer quite disproportionately(mostly with their
deaths) for their delusions, their wrong decisions. Surely, the tragic
death of a hero is a traditionalmotif of heroic poetry.29But the way
the death of a hero is so often accounted for in the Iliad, that is, by
unprovoked divine intervention, seems unparalleled. The society of
the gods is certainlysome sort of projectionof the aristocracyof the
poet's own time and their ideas. This is, however, not the case as far
as this special form of divine interventionprevalentin the Iliad is con-
cerned. Klaus ROterhas pointed out that not only the Odysseybut
also the other early Greek epics differ from the Iliad insofar as the
view of the gods taken in these epics can be reconstructed. In the
Aethiopis,for example, the divine interventions which lead to the
death of the heroes are neutralized by the bestowal of immortality
upon both Achilles and Memnon.30The traditionalnature of the motif

28Cf., e.g., W. Kullmann,Das Wirkender

Gotter(above n.1) 106ff. ("Freie
Willensentscheidungund g6ttlicheLenkung").
29 Cf., e.g., G. Nagy, The Best of the Achaeans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic
GreekPoetry(Baltimore1979) passim.
30K. Ruter (above n.10) 67f. For the priorityof the myth of the immortali-
zation of Memnon by Zeus at Eos's request, as comparedwith the story of
Sarpedon'sdeath in IliadXVI, see W. Schadewaldt,VonHomersWeltund Werk
(4Stuttgart1965) 165ff.;W. Kullmann,Die QuellenderIlias ( = Hermes Einzel-
schriftenH. 14) (Wiesbaden1960) passim;M. E. Clarkand W. D. E. Coulson,
"Memnon and Sarpedon," Mus. Helv. 35 (1978) 65ff. G. Nagy, "On the
Death of Sarpedon,"in Approaches to Homer,ed. C. A. Rubinoand CynthiaW.
Shelmerdine (Austin 1983) 189ff., holds a different view, but he agrees that

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16 Wolfgang Kullmann

of the immortalityof a great hero (includingthe figure of Memnon) is

emphasized by Gregory Nagy in his book on The Best of the
Achaeans.31That the heroes, or at least some of them, are given
immortalityby Zeus on the Isles of the Blessed is expressly stated by
Hesiod, Erga 167ff. (cf. Od. IV 561ff. and Hes. fr. 204, 102f.). This
idea seems to be much more in accordancewith common aristocratic
feeling than the extreme, tragic view of the Iliad. In the Iliad the
heroes who receive a formal and ceremonial burialeven seem to lack
that semi-immortalitywhich is so often ascribed to heroes, who are
thought to be active in their tombs, in later periodsof time. Archaeo-
logical evidence and careful examination of Iliadic passages show that
hero cult must even have been familiar to the society of the poet's
own time.32Compare, for example, the expression qLd06EoL for dead
heroes in Iliad XII 23 (and Hesiod, Erga 160) and the mentioning of
the tombs of Erechtheus (II 550f.), Ilus (X 415, XI 166ff.), Aepytus
(II 604). Nevertheless the poet of the Iliad does not seem to believe
in a lasting activity of the heroes in their tombs, that is, in a limited
immortality, as presumably did many of his contemporaries.33For
example, the statements of the soul of Patroclus about death sound
quite definite in this respect (XXIII 75ff.). Compare also VII 84ff.,
XVI 453ff., 667ff.34One can also think of the reception of the Hera-
cles of the legend in the Olympic society known to us from the

the motif of the immortalizationof a hero, which we find in the Aethiopis,is

old.
31G. Nagy, TheBest of theAchaeans(above n.29) 205ff.
32Cf. A. M. Snodgrass, The Dark Age of Greece(Edinburgh 1971) 192ff.,
393ff., 429ff.; Theodora HadsisteliouPrice, "Hero-Cultand Homer," Historia
22 (1973) 129ff.; J. N. Coldstream,"Hero-Cultsin the Age of Homer," JHS
96 (1976) 8ff.; W. Burkert, GriechischeReligion(above n.17) 312ff.; G. Nagy,
"On the Death of Sarpedon"(above n.30).
33The hero cults of the eighth century may have been engendered by the
influenceof pre-Homericoral poetry.
34The heroic tombs describedat these passagesas providedwith r'P6/3o' and
orij-kr (and perhaps the disputed etymology of the word TapXVELV = "mum-
mify," which now seems to have the significance"bury"; cf. M. M. Willcock,
The Iliad of HomerII [1984] ad loc., and, on the other side, Nagy, "On the
Death of Sarpedon" [above n.30] 195ff.) seem to presupposea common belief
in activity of the dead heroes in the vicinity of their graves, but the Iliadonly
mentions the honor which is paid to the dead. On the other hand comparethe
apparitionof Darius in Aeschylus's Persaeor the kommosin the Choephorior
Oedipus's prophecy in Sophocles, OedipusColoneus1518ff. Nagy, "On the
Death of Sarpedon" (above n.30) 202 says: "Homeric poetry presentsitself as
the very processof immortalization."

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 Godsand Men in theIliad and Odyssey 17

Odyssey. This reception is ignored in the Iliad, consciously, I think.

Achilles cites Heracles' death in Book XVIII 117ff. as a parallelto his
own tragic fate in which, accordingto the Iliad, there is no room for
immortality."It is very improbablethat the "softer" and milder ver-
sion is the result of a later development. In this respect, the case of
the Dioscuri is particularlyrevealing. According to the Odyssey,the
twins remain unseparatedafter the death of the mortal Castor. By
Zeus's pity they win mutual death and life every other day (XI 301ff.;
Cypriafr. VI Allen = 6 Bethe). Conversely the Iliad speaks of the
death of both of them, a death unknown to Helen (III 243f.). As for
the Dioscuri it cannot be doubted that it is by Indo-Europeanheritage
that they are immortalheroes. They are worshipedas representatives
of the young noble warriors.36This means that their tragic death
alluded to in the Iliad must be a Homeric innovation. The poet does
not allow for a miraculousmildness of Zeus, even in the case of his
sons. In the Iliad we obviously get a special individualconception of
the gods and no traditionalpattern.37

35Contrast Iliad XVIII 117ff. with OdysseyXI 602ff. Cf. W. Kullmann,Das

Wirken der G6tter in der Ilias (above n.1) 31, 34; K. ROter (above, n.ll) 67
n.25.
36 Cf. W. Burkert, GriechischeReligion (above n.17) 324ff.
37On this point I find myself in agreement with C. H. Whitman,Homerand
the Heroic Tradition(Cambridge,Mass. 1958) 238; K. Ruter (above n.ll) 68
and W. Burkert, Mus. Helv. 38 (1981) 203f., who, departingfrom different
premises, arrive at similarconclusions. Whitmansays: "Doubtless all oral epic
used the gods, but in the Iliad we are confrontedby a peculiarpoint of view,
and one consistently developed, appropriateonly to this poem." Burkert
remarks: "Offenbarist es nicht so, dass die ganz amoralischenHeideng6tter
erst nachtraglichmit der strafendenGerechtigkeitin Zusammenhanggebracht
worden sind; zumal in der alltaglichenPraxis der Eide war die Erwartung
gottlicher Strafe seit je vorausgesetzt. Der scheinbarangstfreie, 'aufgeklarte'
Umgang mit Gottlichem in der Ilias ist dann keine schlechthin altert0mliche
oder allgemein griechischeGegebenheit, sondern eine besondere, in gewissem
Sinn einmalige Leistung, vor einem durchausbestehenden Hintergrundnumi-
noser Angste."
Cf. also J. Griffin, Homeron Life and Death (Oxford 1980) 144ff. chap. 5
"Gods and Goddesses." Griffin's endeavor to emphasize the poetic values of
the Iliadis much to be welcomed. Unfortunately,he does not alwayssay with
clarityto which extent, in his opinion, the poetic achievementsof the Iliadare
owing to the genius of an individualor to the traditionof an oral society. Hesi-
tatinglyhe subscribesto the idea of an individualpoet of the Iliad (XVI); on
the other side he feels obliged to avoid "argumentswhich are ruled out by an
oral origin for the work" (XIV). He compares,e.g., the stories of the immor-
tality of Memnon and Achilles in the Aethiopiswith the stern view of the Iliad

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18 WolfgangKullmann

Conversely, the Odyssean view of the gods should not be con-

sidered as the simple folktale moralitywhich can be found anywhere
and which lacks any originality.38Surely, the story of the return of
Odysseus, which in its core is known to the poet of the Iliad (where
Odysseus is alreadycalled 7rohX-rhXa),is in its end not tragic. But the
ethical interpretationof the sorrowfulcircumstancesof the homeward
journey of Odysseus and his comrades and of the struggle against the
suitors is no necessary consequence of the myth.39The story could
have been told in quite another way. The consistency with which, in
the Odyssey,morality is based on a divine programcan, in my opin-
ion, only be understood as the individual achievement of a great
poet.40I personally believe that the important results of Havelock's
anthropologicalstudies concerning the differences between both epics
with regard to justice point to the same conclusion:41if we consider
the remarkabledegree of conformityof epic languageand geographical

that the killed warriorsare really dead (167), and he seems to consider this
characteristicfeature of the Iliad as a peculiarityof this poem. This would
imply that, as I think myself, the stories of the Aethiopiscorrespondto common
Greek feeling and are old in their core. But in his article "The Epic Cycle and
the Uniquenessof Homer," JHS 97 (1977) 39ff., he totally rejectsthe neoana-
lytic approach(n.5) and neglects the argumentsof neoanalyticscholarswho try
to find out pre-Homericmotifs in the Cyclic epics, though they concede that
the record of these epics in writing may be post-Homeric. To my mind, the
uniquenessof Homer can be shown conclusively(if it can be shown at all) only
by a comparisonof Homer with post-Homericas well as pre-Homericmotifs.
And this exactly is the field of neoanalysis. Cf. W. Kullmann, "Zur Methode
der Neoanalysein der Homerforschung,"WienerStudien15 (1981) 5ff.
Another question which Griffin leaves open is as follows: He convincingly
compares the Homeric short "obituarynotices" of heroes with archaicgrave
epigrams (Homer on Life and Death 140ff.). But he fails to ask how far the
similarityis due to the direct influenceof the Iliador to a common feeling. So
his sensitive study is very valuablefor furtherinterpretationbut does not bring
the old Homeric "querelles"nearerto a solution.
38Cf. H. Lloyd-Jones(above n.1) 31.
39In a way, the aid of Athena and the other gods to Odysseus, which is
guided by moral principles,weakens the old element of surprisewhich is con-
nected with the old novella motif of the returninghusband.
40I agree with E. R. Dodds (above n.ll) 52f. n.22: "We must, of course,
remember that the Odyssey,unlike the Iliad, has a large fairy-taleelement, and
that the hero of a fairy-taleis bound to win in the end. But the poet who gave
the story its final shape seems to have taken the opportunityto emphasisethe
lesson of divinejustice."
41E. A. Havelock, The GreekConceptof Justice:FromIts Shadowin Homerto
Its Substancein Plato (Cambridge,Mass. 1978) 123-192.

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 Godsand Men in theIliad and Odyssey 19

horizon in both epics it seems improbablethat both epics originated

independentlyfrom each other in differentregions.
Walter Burkert,in his book on Greek religion, in a chapterentitled
"Gods between Amorality and Justice," also expresses doubts about
the possibilityof viewing the contradictionbetween amoralgods and a
religious moralityin terms of a development.42There are probablytwo
popular approachesbehind the religious conceptions of the two epics
which are principallydifferent but normally appear in a mixed form.
If the simile in Iliad, Book XVI 384ff. is authentic, where Zeus's
lightning is mentioned as punishing wrong legal decisions, this
demonstratesthat the conception of the gods as found in the Odyssey
did alreadyexist at the time the Iliad was composed, at least in a rudi-
mentary form. The conception of the gods as avengers of broken
oaths can also be adducedhere.
To the poet of the Odyssey,on the other hand, the Iliadic concep-
tion is not quite unknown in its basic pattern, as can be seen in Book
XII of the Odyssey,295, where Odysseus uses a common saying when
he speaks to his comrades who are staging a mutiny because they
want to go ashore againstOdysseus's will. Odysseus says:

KL TTOTE
87 y
YLVO)KOV 08 7q KaKa/A ?87ET0
T 8altU V.
I realized that some god contrivedbad works.

This is a casual utterancewhich springsfrom the spiritthat is predom-

inant in the Iliad. A religious conception which is near to the concep-
tion of the Iliad is also followed in Book I where Zeus attributes
human suffering to man's wickedness only insofar as men suffer
"beyond destiny" 0bpov).43That man is helpless against fate
(Aoi'pa) seems to (i•nrp
be an Iliadic conviction. This nonmoral view of
fate is, however, quite superficial,since the plot of the Odysseydoes
not show destiny (Aotpa) prematurely destroying a human being
without reason. In the conjurationof the dead in Book XI Elpenor
accounts for his death not only with the fate he met from a wicked
god (8atlovop aro-a) but also with the "immeasurablequantity of
wine" he had drunk before his fatal step, that is, with his guilt (61).
What matters is that the poet of the Iliad and the poet of the Odys-
sey both, with the utmost consistency, base their works on one single
aspect of the divine and relate it to their respectiveviews of man.

42W. Burkert,Griechische
Religion(above n.17) 371ff.
43Cf. A. W. H. Adkins, "Homeric Gods and the Values of Homeric
Society," JHS 92 (1972) Iff.; A. D. Skiadas(above n.26) 16ff.

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20 Wolfgang Kullmann

As I said in the beginning, these results have some importancefor

the oral poetry theory. An apparentoriginalityin the religious views
seems to suggest an individual poet, who can only be conceived as a
writing poet because individual authorshipdepends on the possibility
to write down an authenticmanuscript. As it seems, the poets of both
Homeric epics possess such an original Weltbild.For this and other
reasons I think that the problems of orality and literalitydeserve new
consideration.44"

I should like to conclude with some observations on the influence

exerted by the religious conceptions of the Homeric epics on literary
history, more particularlyon tragedy.45Tragedy, as a genre which so
obviously follows the views of the world found in the Iliad, seems to
preclude the view of simply taking the Odyssean conception of the
gods to be the more advancedone.
It is difficult to compare Aeschylus with Homer, as his tragedies
contain elements springingfrom both epics. H. Hommel, for exam-
ple, has admirablyshown that the concept of justice in the Eumenides,
that is, the advancement beyond ius talionis, is to a great extent
influenced by Book XXIV of the Odysseywhere Athena deters the
families of the suitors from vendetta.46In the Sevenagainst Thebesand
the first two plays of the Oresteia,on the other hand, a tragicview is
found which equals that of the Iliad in its rigor. Only man's ultimate
discernment of his errors may have been considered as a final mercy
of Zeus, as can be concluded from the hymn to Zeus in the Agamem-
non.
In Sophocles the conception of the gods is very much in keeping
with the traditionof the Iliad. Just consider the Ajax, the tragedyin
which Athena takes delight in the madness of the hero. The dreadful-
ness of the fate of Oedipus and the terrible death of Heracles in the
Trachiniaeare owing to the gods without any conception of justice

44 See my paper"OralPoetryTheory and Neoanalysisin Homericresearch,"

GRBS25 (1984) 307ff.
45It is interestingto see how the theodicde conceptof the Odysseyis mitigated
in Hesiod and Solon. Both authors allow that the justice of the gods is not
always executed immediately. Zeus's punishmentsometimes only takes effect
in the descendants. Cf. Hesiod, Op. 282ff.; Solon, fr. 13, 29ff. West. In Iliad
IV 160ff. Menelaos believes that if Zeus does not punish the perjuredimmedi-
ately, he will do so lateron duringtheir lifetime.
46H. Hommel (above
n.ll) 13.

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 Godsand Men in theIliad and Odyssey 21

linked to them (at least without any easy, conceivable conception).47

The anthropomorphicattributionof human sufferingto some passions
and rivalries of the gods, as found in the Iliad, is certainlylacking in
Sophocles when he makes Oedipus exclaim: "That was Apollo" or
when the chorus at the end of the Trachiniaeobserves "and there is
nothing which is not Zeus." The purposes of the gods remain rather
mysterious, in spite of their dreadfulness. But the type of religious
conception is the same. The gods are responsible for the tragedyof
human existence without any thought being given to any kind of
immediate "poeticjustice" on the part of the gods. The view of Zeus
in the Odysseyis infinitelyremote from that in Sophocles.
The relation of Euripides to the theology of the Homeric epics is
particularlyinteresting.48Many scholars have tried to explain the Euri-
pidean theology primarilywith the intellectualcurrentsof his own age
and have therefore tended to overlook the influence of traditionalele-
ments. What is particularlyfascinating about this poet is the way in
which the different views of the gods which are found in the epics are
ingeniously blended with each other in the several plays. In many
cases the plot is a tragicone with the gods acting as do the gods of the
Iliad, while some human charactersof the play believe in gods who
are just, or some parts of the action suggest them to be so, which
correspondswith the Odyssean conception. It is quite clear that Euri-
pides was conscious of his double imitation of Homer. There may
certainly be modern, even sophistical, ideas which have influenced
Euripides'treatmentof the gods. It is, nevertheless, amazing to what
extent the two religious patternsof the Homeric epics can be tracedin
Euripides. For this Euripideanview of the gods I want to give just
two examples.
In the Hippolytusthe ruthlessness of Aphrodite with which she
strives for the destruction of innocent Phaedra in order to be
revenged upon her "enemy" Hippolytus is so great even in the pro-
logue that the goddess might almost be regardedas a caricatureof the
goddess of the Iliad. Hippolytusis bound to die because he does not
care for Kyprisand what she stands for, that is, love, and because the
goddess, in her vanity, is offended. One is remindedof the rigorwith
which in the Iliad the goddess forces Helen to return to Paris. The

47 Cf. A. Lesky, Die tragischeDichtungder Hellenen(Gottingen 31972) 267ff.

The relationsof Sophocles to the archaicworld view are rightlyemphasizedby
E. R. Dodds (above n.11) 49. Lloyd-Jones(above n.1) 104ff., esp. 128, claims
that Sophocles had a sophisticatedview of the justice of the gods which is not
easy for men to conceive.
48A fuller accountof my view of
Euripideswill be given elsewhere.

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22 WolfgangKullmann

words of Artemis have the same ring when she explains to dying Hip-
polytus that she is unable to help him because of the solidarityof the
gods, that she will, however, when the occasion presents itself, take
revenge on a favorite of Aphrodite. It sounds as if the poet wanted to
give an example of Iliadic theology. The way Athena leaves Hector
also comes to mind, as well as Hera's consent to sacrificethe towns
which are dearest to her in order to have her revenge on the Trojans.
But it is a sharp contrastto this conception when the old servant prays
to Aphroditefor forbearancewith Hippolytusand reminds the goddess
that gods should be wiser than mortals. One immediately thinks of
the religious conceptionof the Odyssey.
In the Heracles the same contrast comes out particularlyclearly.
Heracles appearsat the last moment to prevent the destructionof the
family, just as Odysseus in the Odyssey. In the kommosat the end of
the first half of the drama (735ff.), which forms the backgroundof
the slaying of Lykos, the wicked usurper, the justice of the gods is
praised. The death of Lykos is considered as the just divine retribu-
tion for his crimes. Lesky is correct in saying: "If the play ended
here, we would have a play which leads through misery and doubt to a
theodichewhich shines brightly."49The Odyssean part of the drama,
however, is followed by some sort of Iliad. Immediately after the
kommoswe witness the epiphany of Iris and Lyssa, who are about to
plunge Heracles into madness and make him murder his wife and
children. If this scene, which is unique in drama, can be classifiedin
terms of literaryhistory at all, it is connected with the Iliad. Iris, the
messenger of the gods, is a figure taken from the Iliad, who does not
appear in the Odysseynor elsewhere in tragedy. Aristophanesmakes
her appear in the Birds,a play which was probablywritten in 414 B.C.
after the Heracles(which dates from 415 or earlier). In the Iliad, it is
Iris who with "ill message" announces war to the Trojansin Book II
786ff. Her connection with Lyssa in Euripides reminds one of the
false dream sent by Zeus to Agamemnon to induce him to make an
unwise attack upon the Trojanswithout Achilles. The unscrupulous-
ness and the cynicism of the divine intervention, however, are even
more intense in Euripides,capableof provokinga censure of the gods
by the spectators. The debate between Lyssa and Iris is also incon-
ceivable without the influence of the Iliad: it is only reluctantlythat
Lyssa submits to her role. She points to the good deeds done by
Heracles for the benefit of men and gods. This is suggestive of the
altercationsin the councils of the gods in the Iliad, for example, in the

49A. Lesky (above n.47) 374.

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 Godsand Men in theIliad and Odyssey 23

last book in which the same criteria for divine intervention are
brought into play. A new contrast to this action of the gods is Hera-
cles' subsequent question: who can pray to a goddess who out of
jealousy of a rival woman destroys the son of this woman although he
is innocent and a benefactor of Greece? Here the Odyssean concept
of theodichebreaks through again. The censure of this sort of divine
action reaches its climax in the well-known lines 1340ff. in which a
purified view of the gods is professed, proceedingon the assumption
that the gods do not need anything. In lines 1341ff. Heraclessays:
( 8E 6E0V OVTE XEKTp a A1 A
•TOV'1
IrTpyElv vofAC)o8Ero'a T' E'&7TrEV XEXPO^V
I have never thought that they manacle each other nor that one
'8' 'XXov rEOtvaL.
8The XOoVof8E(To'1TO•)7V
main problem interpreting Euripides lies in this coexistence
'
Vo88,ottVO8
'V8EVo';'aoLR("o 6Xyo?.
I don't believe that the Gods rejoice at unallowedlove affairsand
I have never interest lithey manacle each other nor that one
thoughmain
god is the master of another god. The god, if he is a god indeed,
does not need anything. These are only poor tales of the singers.
The main problem of interpretingEuripideslies in this coexistence
of the two theologicalmodels. How does Euripideswant to be under-
stood? A final answer cannot be given here. dIt is obvious, however,
that Euripides'main interest lies not so much in the contrastbetween
popularbelief and sophistic enlightenment, as is often claimed, but in
two religious positions which defy the classifdwhiconas "old" or
"new." The different positions are primarilythose found in Iliad and
Odyssey.
I break off my study of the influence of the Homeric epics on
literaryhistory here. Even in Christianitythe different conceptionsof
divine grace and free will of man bear traces of the primaryconcep-
tions which were first set forth in the two Homeric epics. What
matters here is that Iliadand Odysseydisplaytwo opposite originalpat-
terns of a religious explanation of the world which are mutually
exclusive and which have been exceedingly influential on the history
of the human mind.

ALBERT- LUDWIGS
- UNIVERSITAT, I. B.
FREIBURG

50 With regard to the present situation of Euripidean research cf., e.g., H.

Strohm,"ZumProblemder Einheitdes euripideischen Wiener
BOhnenwerks,"
Studien 15 (1981) 135ff.

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