The Role of the Gods in the OdysseyIn the ancient world, the gods of the Greeks were mainly confined to cosmological acts before the works of Homer. "As Hesiod outlined the roles of the gods in his Theogony and the Works and Days, it is evident that although the gods were active in the creation of the cosmos, natural phenomena, and cyclical events such as the seasons, they were not, however, functioning in a historical manner” (Bloom 36). perhaps first introduced by the Hebrews at the turn of the first millennium BCE, it quickly found resonance in religious paradigms of homo religiosus across the Near East and Europe in the 7th and 7th centuries. 6th centuries BCE, another predominant thought swept the ancient world; life suffers An obvious question arises from the mixture of these two thoughts; if the gods function in the historical reality of humanity, why do they allow it? do they cause suffering? This is the dilemma that Homer sets out to resolve in the epic poem The Odyssey. Taking Odysseus as a model of the homo religiosus who is well versed in the rituals and ways of the gods, Homer attempts to show how the life story of such a man can be riddled with suffering. Moreover, it does not matter whether the suffering is inflicted by fate, the will of the gods, other people, or man's own desires, the gods themselves have divined a system that will help alleviate the intolerable condition of the 'man. The Odyssey is the heart. For Homer, the heart is man's axis mundi. After the arrival of Odysseus on the island of the Phaikians, Homer associates...... middle of paper ......e the life of Homer. Moreover, two and a half millennia later, this teaching still constitutes a pillar of all the great religions of the world. Thus, Homer made it clear that if the gods participated in historical time, it would enable man to establish a prosperous relationship with them, and thus eliminate the endless cycle of suffering. Introduction, NY, Chelsea House 1988Crane, Gregory, Calypso: Backgrounds and Conventions of the Odyssey, Frankfurt, Athenaeum 1988David W. Tandy and Walter C. Neale (ed. and trans.), Hesiod's Works and Days: A Translation and Commentary for the Social sciences. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. Pp. xiv, 149. Heubeck, Alfred, JB Hainsworth et al. A commentary on Homer's Odyssey. 3 Vol. Oxford PA4167.H4813 1988