So when a Greek god does x, am I supposed to read it as a poetical way of saying a character doing x?>Paris giving the golden apple to Venus over Minerva and Juno is his choosing Love over Wisdom and Power>Juno helping the Greeks is them restoring the marriage between Helen and Menelaus>Ulysses saved by Minerva is him being saved by his Wisdom>Venus telling Cupid to shoot Dido is Aeneas charming her>Juno telling the Furies to hunt Turnus is his rage for his nation to be usurped by Aeneas, who gets away with it with his Charm
No, they literally intervened in the world. This was before man killed the gods.
>>24688112I had a similar thought the first time I read The Iliad, but it just seems awkward in places. When Diomedes wounds Ares, how should we interpret that? The passages where the gods interact with one another become even harder to understand the true meaning of. It should also be considered that it wasn't unusual for gods and man to interact in Greek myth
>>24688254>When Diomedes wounds AresWisdom (since Minerva helped) in battle, a good strategy, beats brute strength
>>24688112Odysseus used wisdom to run faster and make Ajax slip and fall face first into a pile of dung?
>>24688286The wise Odysseus avoids the dung while the dumb musclehead Ajax doesn't
>>24688112Depends the book,context, author, period...
>>24688293This was lesser Ajax, and in the wrestling immediately before the race Odysseus is said to have used his cunning, with no mention of Athena aiding him, to better grapple greater Ajax to a stalemate.
>>24688112>>24688254You're just touching on Plato's critique of Homer in the Republic and Ion.
