The Gods vs. Man Essay - 1966 Words

The Gods vs. Man God. That one word has a lot of weight to it, doesnt it? It had even more significance to the Greeks. It was something they feared and respected. Throughout history men have always wanted to be like the gods. It is something that is seen over and over, mans universal struggle to be like the gods. Is it mans fault that he wants to be like the gods? Or is it the gods fault? The story Oedipus Rex by Sophocles shows that mans arrogance and fallible personality is the cause of this struggle for superiority. The Greeks dealt the most with gods, melding their daily lives with religion. The Greeks have had multiple Gods over much of their history. The Greeks had one of the†¦show more content†¦More recently, during the time period of Sophocles, the Greeks believed in and listened to the Olympians. There were twelve of these major Gods. These Gods directly influenced the lives of the people of this time. They ruled all parts of peoples lives and were the gods that the people prayed to and listened to. The following passage explains the position of the gods: Gaea created life, but that was life, which was reigned by a brute force. There was no prize for honesty, nor punishment for crime. Guided by their natural aspiration towards the order and ordered society wise men created immortal gods, who governed peoples lives, seeing and hearing everything, and enforcing the laws? The fear of such mighty gods forced the people to place them as far as possible, but also in beautiful settings in order to please them. So, the gods were placed at Mount Olympus and organized as a hierarchical society in which the jet-set consisted of twelve Olympian gods: Zeus, the supreme god, Hera, his lawful wife, Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Aphrodite, Hermes, Athena, Hephaestus, Ares, Artemis and Apollo. Mount Olympus is placed on the borders of Macedonia and Thessaly. In the central place at Olympus there was Zeuss palace with palaces of other great gods in the vicinity, and palaces of the less important gods further away. The gates of this city of gods were open ing in the dawn and closing in the dusk. 1. In OedipusShow MoreRelatedConflicts Of Literature : The Foundation Of The World1425 Words   |  6 PagesConflicts in Literature: To a God Unknown The foundation of the world has been constructed by numerous influences over time with one of the most popular being the Bible. Known as the world s best-selling book, the Bible has influenced many sectors of society including religion, history, language and lifestyles. Despite the book’s evident influences on society throughout history, the studying and teaching of this spiritual book has significantly decreased generation by generation. JohnRead MoreContrast Between Oedipus the King and Antigone by Sophocles744 Words   |  3 PagesOedipus is defined as Man vs Himself. This conflict is defined as a character in conflict with him or herself. In Oedipus the King, Oedipus is fated to murder his father Laios and marry his mother Jocasta who are king and queen of Thebes. He begins the conflict with himself when he leaves Polybus and Merope (his adopted parents who he believes to be his biological parents) to prevent the prophecy from coming to fruition. He makes his way to the city of Thebes, on the way he kills a man at a crossroadsRead MoreThe Philosophy Of God s Creation1625 Words   |  7 Pagesoutline in our thinking that God has created a Beautiful world in which He desires us to worship Him as the creator of all things. In This lesson we will be looking at man who God has created in His image and how Man fell in disobedience to God. We shall also see the wonderful provision and Restoration God has made available to us through the various covenants He has established with mankind since the days of Adam. In the same way that God s creation stands as a source of God in us, we must also faceRead MoreThe Blood Of Olympus By Rick Riordan1125 Words   |  5 Pages This is the fifth and final book in The Heroes of Olympus series. This is the book where the final battle between the demigods and gods vs. the giants and Gaea the earth mother. Gaea was out take over he world and kill the mortals, banish the gods to Tartarus and extinct the demigod race. In the book the seven of the prophecy travel to the ancient lands of the gods: Greece. They must fufill the line of the prophecy â€Å"To storm or fire the world must fall†. The main characters of the bookRead MoreChristianity vs. Islam1148 Words   |  5 Pages Swords clash, bombs explode, and governments disintegrate; the world is at war and God is the Commanding General for both sides? Past, present, and future, there is in fact a Holy War being waged. The combatants are not your typical organized armies, they are bodies of faith. Religious conflict has been a staple of existence since the beginning of time. Ted Hodges, expert in conflicts in history, said â€Å"Some of the worst wars, mass murders, and other outbreaks of violence in history have beenRead MoreArrow Of God And Smoke Signals1042 Words   |  5 PagesArrow of God and Smoke Signals have similar patterns of fiction, archetypes and philosophies. If you notice Campells typical hero sequence of actions can be detected in both Arrow of God and Smoke Signals. â€Å"There is a certain typical hero sequence of actions which can be detected in stories from all over the world from many p eriods of history. Essentially, it might even be said there is but one archetypal mythic hero whose life has been replicated in many lands by many people.†(Archetypes pg 6)Read MoreCrabb Theory Critique1057 Words   |  5 Pagesto adopting this counseling style the most prevalent being the focus on restoring others to God through correcting the assumptions which have been tainted by living in a sinful world as sinful people, back to biblical thinking with an absolute truth. In contrast, the weakness as this writer would suggest is in the loss of the individualistic nature of man, and the one true God’s ability to allow each man to have his will and seek after Him in a very personal broken manner that can be the very thingRead MoreThe Tragedy Of Antigone By William Shakespeare1001 Words   |  5 Pages In life, we tend to see things in a black and white manner; good vs. bad. However, there is often a gray area that goes unexplored. Antigone manages to venture into this gray area through a complicated conflict of values. Kreon, the ruler of Thebes, has declared the leader of a rebellion against the state must not be buried. This conflicts with the leaders’ sister, Antigone, as she feels compelled to bury him. This conflict of values was expressed by German philosopher Hegel when he said â€Å"At theRead MoreEssay on Epic of Gilgamesh971 Words   |  4 Pagesidea of Gilgamesh was the greed that he had to receive eternal life. Gilgamesh was a selfish person who was half god and half man and wanted to keep his youth after seeing Enkidu die. Gilgamesh knew his destiny was not to receive eternal life because he was half man. He decided to go against the odds to fight against not having eternal life searching for the secret despite what the Gods told him. Exposition: The story dates between 2500-1500 B.C. Gilgamesh ruled in Uruk, a city in ancient MesopotamiaRead MoreSolomon Was Man That Loved The Lord938 Words   |  4 PagesThe start of this passage we see that Solomon was man that Loved the Lord. That might sound strange to you because of the story that you know about Solomon and how his wives when he was old were able to turn his heart to other â€Å"gods†.(1 Kings 11:4  For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.) But the scripture is clear in 1 Kings 3:3 that Solomon loved the