Response to Reading Question 1

All of the characters described in Book 1 of The Iliad seem to practice a premodern form of polytheism, where gods (immortals) are actually inhabitants of the mortal world who rule from their mystical palace at Olympus. Throughout the reading, Homer presents countless examples of the Greek gods exchanging words and even blows with mortals, from Thetis confronting Achilles about Agamemnon to Apollo's weeklong scourge of the Achaean camp; and more significantly, The Iliad's entire dramatic backdrop consists of family feuds being fought between the gods and their extended mortal families. For instance, Thetis is the mermaid mother of Achilles, and she is carrying on illicit communications with Jove, whose wife is Juno. Jove is also the father of Apollo, who scourged the Achaean camp because Agamemnon dishonored one of Jove's priests by taking his daughter as his wife and denying his attempt at ransom. Finally, Achilles and Agamemnon are at odds throughout Book 1 because Agamemnon (who, by the way is the son of Atreus, or "king of men") refuses to give up the priest's hostage daughter unless Achilles gives up his wife (or, "prize" as they are repeatedly referred to) to Agamemnon to replace the daughter when she is returned.

Overall, the characters in Book 1 apply their polytheistic worldview both communally and ethically. As a community, it seems obvious, even with such a limited scope of the entire Achaean camp, that the community leaders are those connected in some way to the gods, and that the welfare of the community largely depends on the welfare of these leaders. Therefore I understood the communal application of their worldview to be a very conservative bureaucracy largely determining the welfare of everyone based on the desires and mood of a select few, such as in Homer's description of how selfishly the gods regard their decisions over the "pack of mortals" in their meeting at Olympus. Lastly, the ethics of the Greeks' polytheism follows a very similar trend in favoring selfish desires over common welfare; in that women are subjugated to property, affairs and overindulgence are condoned and even enacted by the gods, and war, sacrifice, and pestilence are all just means to the ends that the immortals throughout The Iliad invent.