Gods in the Iliad

With our view of God, comprehending the actions and thinking of the Greek deities can sometimes be difficult. The Christian God does not take such an active role in the affairs of people's lives, where, the Greeks regarded direct involvement by the gods as a uncontrollable part of life. Naturally, divine intervention was a major variable in the equation of Homer's Iliad. Zeus, as the symbol of supreme authority and justice, made judgement calls as …

…a man then Achilles. He also gave his word to Thetis that Achilles would gain much glory showing his involvement on a personal level. Writing the story without the divine interventions of the gods would not have been possible for Homer. They affected every aspect the poem. Yet, from the immortal perspective of the Greek god, the Trojan war and everything related to it, was only a passing adventure in the great expanse of time.