Zeus in Greek Literature Term Papers

Hesiod’s Theogony, which, with Homer, serves as the fountainhead of Greek mythology, contains some of the stories concerning Zeus in Greek Literature. It is clear from these stories that he could be cruel and arbitrary. Zeus chained Prometheus, the friend of mankind who taught humans the use of fire, to a rock and condemned him to have his liver eternally eaten because of a minor deception. Interestingly, in Aeschylus’ play, Prometheus Bound, we get some idea of the limitations of Zeus’ power. He is omnipotent in time present, but he is not all-knowing. He can be deceived (as Hera does in seducing him in the Iliad [XIV]). Moreover, he is not completely omnipotent in the way in which Christians believed their God to be. The Leader of the chorus in Aeschylus’ play asks Prometheus, “Who then holds the helm of necessity?” The answer is not Zeus, but the Fates and Furies. The leader then asks, “And Zeus, is he less in power than these?” To which Prometheus answers, “He may not avoid what is destined”.

Zeus, in Greek Literature, has a very important function, the maintenance of order and justice, in the world. This can be seen in the two Homeric poems. Zeus mediates between those gods who want the Trojans destroyed and those who do not. He is generally fair. Though he loves Hector he abandons him to his fate—death at Achilles hands—when the action of a scale mandates it. The lesser gods of Olympus tend to divide into rabid factions in the Iliad, but Zeus maintains a certain aloof and judicious quality, a quality of cleaving to the mean, that the Greeks would have very much liked. In the Odyssey he agrees at the beginning of the poem that Odysseus should be allowed to return home and it is he that sends Hermes to Calypso with the news that she must let Odysseus leave her island and return to Ithaca. This is a just act.

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