CLAS 203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Walter Burkert, Pierre Jeanpierre, Xenophanes
7 Sep 2016
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Homer - not sure if he is a single person, more like a literary form. The illiad and the odyssey in late 8th century bce. Cultural contribution to the greek society is immense. Explains how the gods interacted with humans. These stories were originally passed orally before being written down. In the illiad, it tells of the story of the trojan war. In western culture, there are similarities with pop culture (ie. star wars) and the illiad. Even though the texts talked about the gods, these works were not considered religious texts. * the greeks were open to welcoming foreign gods. * the greeks gods do not live completely isolated from the mortal world - they can interact with humans, since they were basically the same as humans but more powerful. Gods are not omnipotent, they are not all-powerful nor are they perfect.
