The gods as expressed in homer and Hesiod

Abstract

Homer, a bard and an epic writer who lived in the 8th century B.C.E. Greece composed the two epics ‘The Iliad’ and ‘The Odyssey’ whose subject matter was the Trojan War, to entertain his aristocratic audience by referring to the heroic deeds of their Mycenaean ancestors. Hesiod, a near contemporary of Homer who was a peasant farmer in Boeotia composed ‘The Works and Days’ in order to advice his brother Perses, who by bribing the lords, secured the best and the larger part of the ancestral land. Depending on the different social backgrounds both writers are provided with, it is evident that they show different approaches in their beliefs presented through their works despite the fact that they were near contemporaries. This difference can also be identified in their presentation of ideas on the Olympian religion. The object of this research is to identify the differences distinct in each writer’s religious outlook, Homer in ‘The Iliad’ and Hesiod in ‘The Works and Days’. The research problem is to concentrate on how the different socio-political atmospheres became influential in the manner in which they presented their religious beliefs, mainly on the Olympian religion. The methodology is to examine the religious ideas presented in the works themselves along with readings on the socio-political background of the two writers.