cosmology, cultural relativity, and me
The Greek gods are dicks. Like Zeus and Poseidon cursing the Phaeacians for being nice to Odysseus- there seems to be a pervasive disregard for human life, equity, anything resembling what we’d call fairness. And yet, people continue to worship these gods who are, it seems, not really deserving of it. However, I believe that the behavior of the Greek gods is reflective of its surrounding culture- a time when life really just was that unfair.
Today, we have control over our lives. If you’re hot, blast the AC; if you’re cold, turn on the heat.. We certainly don’t have solutions for every problem, but there’s a fundamental difference in mindset. We believe that by relying on a set scientific method, we can use ration and logic to find solutions for what are, fundamentally, issues fixable by human ingenuity alone.
This belief system is almost completely antithetical to that held by the ancient Greeks. Because while they did possess rudimentary understandings of medicine, agriculture, etc, they by and large lacked the skills/knowledge to fix anything. Consider what appendicitis might’ve looked like: Craig is the best warrior in Sparta. He has a beautiful wife, strong sons, and acres of cows. Craig gets a stomach ache. Six hours later, he’s dead. Why?
One trait consistent through pretty much all of humanity is our sharp desire for understanding. We don’t like the notion that Craig died just, like, because. So in 2019, if we hadn’t saved him from dying entirely, we probably go in and do an autopsy. Our assumption would be that he’d died from natural, and likely preventable causes, and we could use that knowledge to help others in the future.
Meanwhile, in ancient Greece, the tools and knowledge to do that aren’t available yet. But you still want an answer about his death. Well, maybe he just hadn’t sacrificed enough to the gods that month. Maybe he pissed off Poseidon.
Essentially, the gods are volatile, cruel, unpredictable, and unfair because the world was volatile, cruel, unpredictable, and unfair. You could be the best farmer in Athens and still lose your crops to a bad frost. You could see your son off to war and never hear from him again. You could never be sure exactly what was going to come your way, and you had no means of controlling it.
I’m not trying to criticize Greek culture from my lofty seat of modernity; I’m sure there’s plenty about our society that future generations will dismiss as immature or silly. I do think it’s important to understand, though. Throughout reading the Odyssey, I’ve tried to keep the contemporary setting in mind, and I think it has helped me in interpreting the story to consider the behavior of the gods as reflective of the ancient Greek world.
Nice post! I agree with you on all of this stuff. Theology throughout time has had to do with what kind of world we've been exposed to - the very first religions praised gods out of utter gratitude for the world and all the food that was ripe for the taking (of course things weren't all fine and dandy at the beginning of human history, but still). Greek theology and mythology definitely emphasizes their view of the world - that life is just not fair. And I don't think that necessarily has to read as a negative attitude. I have albeit pretty limited knowledge, but the story of Achilles (which I don't even remember) emphasizes the attitude that the fact that you could die at any moment is what makes life beautiful. The point of a lot of these old stories is that the gods are jerks because they have nothing to lose. Life, on the other hand, is sweet. I always loved that message.
ReplyDeleteCool post! I think you're pretty spot on with your argument on the belief system. Reading the Odyssey, I've also noticed how important the rivalries between the gods are. You got me wondering if the rivalries could be used to explain why sometimes, people do everything right, and yet they still come upon misfortune. You sacrificed every day to Demeter but your crops died in a drought? Tough luck; Zeus has beef with Demeter and he stopped it from raining on your fields to piss her off. There's a very similar situation with the Phaeacians in the Odyssey. All travelers are sent by Zeus, but sometimes Zeus has bad days.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think most people who study mythology would agree with you that a culture's cosmology comes from its culture and circumstances (hello subbie social studies!) and understanding that context is really helpful when reading the Odyssey. It can be infuriating if you don't recognize that while by our standards Odysseus doesn't deserve all he has; well I mean-- an ancient Greek dude wasn't under any pressure to prove he was worthy of going to heaven when he died. He's a hero because Athena said so. And you know what? Your dad died because the gods said so too. Tough luck. No choices for you.
ReplyDeleteThis kind of random and capricious pantheon is very common in the ancient world. The Mesopotamian gods caused a world-ending, everyone-killing flood because the humans were talking too loudly and they couldn't sleep. In ancient Mesopotamia, river floods were wildly unpredictable, and so were the gods.
There are exceptions though. In ancient Egypt the gods were actually quite calm, and they worked in patterns. The Nile floods regularly.