Journal Reading #6

How is the relationship between God and Humans?

The relationship between Humans and Gods in the Book of Odysseys is ambiguous. The book makes a lot of references of their relationship. The relationship with the Gods and the humans it tends to be complicated. For example, in page 2 (lines 48-50) says “Recalling Aegisthus, Zeus harangued the immortal powers: “My word, how mortals take the gods to task! All their afflictions come from us; we hear. And what of their own failings?” According to this evidence, we can see how the relationship between the Gods and humans is complicated.  Zeus expressed how Humans blame Gods for any bad thing that happens to them. But he also is reflecting how they warn humans in order to protect them. Instead they act on their freewill and do not acknowledge the consequences of their act by blaming the Gods. This is connected to the world nowadays, some people blame God for all the horrific events that the world passes through, such as natural disasters, death, and diseases. They blame God because they do not want to reflect about the actions of humans and blame God as an excuse to avoid thinking in depth about the bad behavior that humans have. Also, people blame God because they believe that God controls everything. Moreover, another evidence from the book which demonstrates the aspects of the relationship between the Gods and humans is when the author sates in page 3 (lines 64-67) “O Majesty, O Father of us all, that man is in the dust indeed, and justly. So, perish all who do what he had done. But my own heart is broken for Odyssey.” In this evidence we can see how the gods have the same feelings and qualities that humans have. The goddess Athena demonstrates that she has pity for Odyssey by feeling sad or bad because of the punishment that Odyssey is receiving. According to this we can say that despite that the gods punishes humans they care about humans because they both share same qualities and feelings.