Immortal vs Mortal Revenge

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Immortal vs Mortal Revenge


As we’ve already established, the Greek Gods use humans as pawns to fulfill their agendas, use them as entertainment, and use them to take out their frustration. Their attitudes are human-like, they succumb to feelings of lust, they feel envy, and of course, anger. They also know how to hold a grudge (*cough* Poseidon).

One of the first examples to illustrate this was Poseidon’s anger over Odysseus blinding his son, Polyphemus. From the moment Odysseus did this, Poseidon made his life very difficult, though he knew that he couldn’t change the fact the Odysseus would eventually return home.

The part that irked me the most was when Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca with the aid of the Phoenicians. Poseidon is outraged; he knows he can’t hurt Odysseus so instead he channels his anger at the Phoenicians. When he asks Zeus about what to do, Zeus responds quickly without really taking much time to think (to be quite honest their exchange sounded like elementary school kids deciding who to make fun of). Poseidon wants to just turn the ship into stone but Zeus says, almost excitedly, “AND you should put mountains around their port!” Then they quickly decide to do it (this dialogue is around 2 pages long ), then it happens and its over; they really don’t consider/need to consider their actions.

On the other hand, we have Telemachus and Odysseus plotting their revenge over multiple books rather than pages. Their issue is a rather legitimate one though, even if they seem to go a bit overboard, it’s more justified than the Gods’ reason for revenge. They plan out every little detail meticulously, there’s almost an art to the revenge. Odysseus tests the suitors, pretends to be a beggar, and comes up with an elaborate back story as well as gets help from Athena. Perhaps this planning is really meticulous because Odysseus is involved, but prior to his arrival it seemed like Telemachus was also going to thoroughly plan it out.

This juxtaposition, in my mind, shows how Gods could essentially do whatever they wanted, as long as they didn’t mess with prophecy. Their actions didn’t need to be justified, thus they took advantage. On the other hand, mortals had to carefully plan their actions so that they weren’t subject to the wrath of the moody Gods.

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 16, 2016 at 8:13 AM

    It does seem a little like schoolyard bullies. The gods are so vastly more powerful than those they were attacking that the attack required no real planning. Odysseus, on the other hand, had to lay plans to ensure success, even with the support of a god. The gods also seem like they take their actions as far as they can without interfering with prophecy, as they know that not even they can stand against the Fates.

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  2. UnknownSeptember 16, 2016 at 6:27 PM

    The gods have a sense of entitlement, where the mortals have to work much harder to accomplish just a fraction of what the gods can do. Fate is the only restraint on gods' abilities, and the gods seemed to have learned to deal with that small constraint well. However, mortals are much less capable of tasks that would be simple for the gods, with no second thoughts, either. And while the gods have no real authority hanging over them (besides each other), the mortals have the gods hanging over them ready to smite and play with them however they like.

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  3. sarahSeptember 17, 2016 at 6:52 PM

    Greek gods have a reputation for being very, very humanlike in terms of their emotions and frequent inability to get along with each other. They're not forces of good or evil, but more like overpowered humans whose immortality has induced a need for entertainment and overblown reactions to everything. They're just too immortal and too unconcerned with irrelevant lesser beings to really think things through all that hard. So yeah, it is kind of unfair how casual Zeus and Poseidon are with their plan. Telemachus and Odysseus have basically one shot at theirs because they can't erase people's memories of a botched execution like Athena did to restore peace. But, you know, whatever. Gods. Epics. Guess that's just how it is. What's entertainment without ignoring the problematic parts?

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