- Sep 2020
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At that moment, Athena came down from heaven.
Despite some depictions of the Iliad in a realistic manner, and most ancient histories after Herodotus being mostly focused on the facts and separate from religion, the Iliad (and its two sequels) are different in that the Gods take direct intervention in the plot of the story.
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Son of Atreus,
Why does the Iliad repeatedly mention who Agamemnon's father is?
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Give up this quarrel. Don’t draw your sword.
Athena pleads with Achilles to not resort to violence in this rivalry between the two of them. Shortly after, at 1.304 Nestor does the same thing.
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The person who’s obedient to the gods, the gods attend to all the more.”
I find this line interesting as it almost seems to suggest a defense of authoritarianism and resignation to the state. This is couched in religious terms but how much were religion and the state separate during antiquity? Achilles is essentially saying “do what the (Gods) say and you will be rewarded. Don’t think for yourself and don’t look out for yourself.” I think this is an interesting lesson Homer might be trying to teach to his contemporaries.
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