Student Question
In The Odyssey, why do the gods need each other?
Quick answer:
In "The Odyssey," gods need each other much like humans do, as they specialize in different domains and rely on one another for balance and support. They are not omnipotent and cooperate to maintain harmony, similar to a family structure. Additionally, their interactions provide entertainment and prevent boredom. Julian Jaynes suggests that in ancient times, people perceived gods as part of their mental processes, relying on them for guidance, reinforcing the interconnectedness between gods and humans.
The answer to that is pretty similar to why humans need each other. The Gods are sort of like teachers who have been assigned to different subjects. Each one is a "specialist" in some aspect of nature or whatever. For example, a God like Poseidon is the "king of the sea." In this way, the work is split up. These Greek Gods do not seem to be Omnipotent, meaning that they can't just snap their fingers and do "anything." There are some limits, it would appear, or self-imposed limits because they are afraid of stepping on each others toes.
Also, in a lot of cases the Gods are related, so they need each other in the way that a family needs other members...for the occasional picnic, support, and help. Greek Gods are more like "supermen (and women)" than we tend to think of in, say, the Christian God.
Mostly, I...
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think the Gods need each other for entertainment. They are always screwing around with each other and getting into mischief. If it was Zeus by himself I think he would get bored of watching humans all day without "equals" to interact with.
In Homer's Odyssey, why do mortals need help from the gods?
The brilliant American psychologist Julian Jaynes (1920-1997) published a fascinating book with a rather intimidating title: The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (c. 1976).
According to Jaynes, ancient people in the bicameral state of mind would have experienced the world in a manner that has some similarities to that of a schizophrenic. Rather than making conscious evaluations in novel or unexpected situations, the person would hallucinate a voice or "god" giving admonitory advice or commands and obey without question: one would not be at all conscious of one's own thought processes per se. Research into "command hallucinations" that often direct the behavior of those labeled schizophrenic, as well as other voice hearers, supports Jaynes's predictions. (Wikipedia)
People of Homer’s time did not “think” the way we do. They actually saw and communicated with the various gods and goddesses who appear in ancient literature. When a person had a problem, according to Jaynes, he did not necessarily try to think it out but was more likely to pray for an answer from one of the gods or goddesses who resided in one of the two separate halves of his own brain. One of the examples Jaynes offers is the scene in Homer's Iliad in which Achilles prays to his mother, who is a minor goddess, for advice and assistance after his friend Patrocles is killed and his armor is stolen.
Jaynes studied world literatures in depth. He is an excellent writer, partly because of his exposure to so many great ancient and modern writers. His book provides a plausible answer to the question, “In Homer's Odyssey, why do mortals need help from the gods?"
The term "bicameral mind" means that before the origin of conscious the two halves of the human brain were independent of each other. Communication from one "brain" to the other came in the form of visions or hallucinations. The ancient Greeks believed in their gods and goddesses because they believed they saw them and spoke to them regularly, although these gods and goddesses actually only existed in their own minds.