So, I’m finally reading The Illiad, and the situation up on Mt. Olympus seems rather, how shall we put it, muddled. Aphrodite is rather obviously on the Trojans’ side, and equally obviously, Athena and Hera are with the Greeks. That’s about all that’s clear-cut here, though… Ares certainly seems to be with the Trojans: Aphrodite has him wrapped around her finger, and besides, he can’t be on the same side as the other war-deity. Yet, Menelaos (a Greek) is invariably described as “dear to Ares”. Apollo has a running grudge going against all the Greeks, but it’s not clear why. Zeus seems to like Troy, but doesn’t really do much. Hephaestos is married to Aphrodite and the son of Hera; with which of the women in his life does he side? So far all he seems to have done is try to calm Hera down. Hades lent Athena his cap of invisibility, and Posiedon has been mentioned tangentially… Did they do anything else in the war? Hermes is conspicuously absent: Iris seems to be handling all of the messenger duty. And are Ceres and Artemis involved at all? How? And have I missed any?
And this has what to do with physics, young man? 
Nothing. I don’t do schoolwork on Saturdays :).
Zeus indeed preferred Troy over Greece; however, he was (for the most part) unable to do anything about it because Hera tended to heavily interfere with anything he would do. (As mentioned, she favored the Greeks due to the original cause of the war.)
Poseidon also favored Greece; in book XIII of the translation I have (Samuel Butler), Poseidon helps rally the Greeks in yet another inconclusive sortie.
Artemis, as brother to Apollo, favored the Trojans.
Hermes and Hephaestus played some role in the war; I haven’t yet been able to find any mention of what Hermes did (and I’ve seen mentions in this book of his being both on the side of the Trojans and the Greeks), but Hephaestus does help the Greeks out with some armoring issues. (cough)
To the best of my knowledge, Demeter (Ceres) played no role in the war. Agriculture and war don’t mix, and she didn’t have any personal connection with any of the combatants.
It’s just like NASCAR. You know, “name the sponsor!”
*Sarpedon is trying to take Patroklos on the outside… He’s got the nose on Sarpedon, and… oh! He goes into the wall! Patroklos, driving the Thetis-Ford which would normally be driven by Achilles were he not away, has put the Zeus-Buick driven by Sarpedon into the wall… Caution flag is out… Oh, my he hid hard…
And Zeus is not happy about this. What you’re seeing now is the Control Box of the Zeus-Buick team, and yes, that is lightning… Now, we can just see Zeus himself walking over to the Apollo team’s booth… What will transpire from this meeting, we can only imagine, but my guess is it will have deep implications in the points race for the Olympia Beer Mug…*
Make that sister…
Argh.
The one time I don’t preview is the one time I make a mistake. Thank you, Mr. Murphy.
whaps himself upside the head with his copy of the Iliad
[sub]Artemis is female … no male virgin gods allowed in this pantheon![/sub]
Poseidon- removed Aeneas from battle, because he would later be the founder of Roman race.
helped Athena destroy much of the Greek fleet on return voyage;punishment for destroying athena’s shrine in Troy
Posiedan built Troy’s walls w/ Apollo…long before Trojan war
all this and he still supported Greece.
Hermes-very little mention of him. he did however support the greeks as well.
Zeus-from what I remember Zues was nuetral along with Hades, Demeter, and Hestia
Aphrodite, Artemis and Apollo favored Troy
Hera, Athena Poseidon, Hermes and Hephaestus sided with the Greeks
Ares just wanted bloodshed. Helped both sides.
Telemonian Ajax had friends in Heracles and Zeus.
The Other Ajax made a lot of enemies amongst the gods, notably Athena and Poseidon, who teamed up to ensure his demise.
OK, so I will see some more of the all-star cast later on. Right now, I’m somewhere around book 12 (out of 24, I think), so there’s still plenty of room. I just figured I’d see at least some mention of the other Olympians by now.
You know, the gods in the bulk of Greek mythology sort of remind me of a guest panel on the Springer show. You know, inbreeding, infighting, grudge matches, unduly complex family trees, and tempers like a wolverine that just quit smoking. However, the instant an outsider makes a vaguely derogatory comment, they all kind of band together: “Y’all cain’t say that about Shirley Mae!”.
And Ares, if you read a lot of his myths at once, clearly cannot find his butt with both hands. Kind of a “Hulk SMASH!” guy.
Perhaps I should stop reading with the TV on in the background.
Coming next week: How Finnegan’s Wake reminds me of the Clampetts from Beverly Hillbillies.
Gotta love Homer.
What gets me the most, and never fails to fascinate me, is the absence of modern concepts of “good” or “evil”. We’ve got that polar opposite today, and consciously or not, we assign people a position on that sliding scale.
Those wacky fellahs, though- no good and evil, but other polar opposites. Conquered or conquerer, honored or shamed; these were their opposites.
I should stop eating sunflower seed shells, actually. I’ll pay for it soon enough.
Ares was in fact a very poor god of war. He was bested in combat on a few occasions.
-Athena opened up a can of whoop-ass, twice.
-Two giant sons of Poseidon beat him and trapped him in a pot or a jar.
-Heracles knocked him off his feet 4 times.
-Diomedes, a mortal, wounded him at Troy
It would appear that he was more the God of wanton destruction and bloodlust.
Ares also had a thing about getting wounded. If he did, he was a real wimp, and screamed and moaned until he got healed.
This is a bit unfair, because they were invincible. Not even Zeus could have killed them… The only people who could kill them was each other (and assumably Orion, their brother)
Right on Speaker. Their names were Otus and Ephialtes. Without the help of Heracles they would not have defeated them at all.
And they wanted to marry Hera and Athena/Artemis, didn’t they? And someone ran between them and they hit each other trying to kill what they thought was an animal… right?