Homer's Iliad is an epic poem about the Trojan War. Many similarities in behavior between gods and men are described in this epic. In book 14 of The Iliad, “Hera Outruns Zeus,” the book incorporates the disparity between the gods. At first, Hera timidly convinces Zeus' daughter, Aphrodite, to make her irresistible. "Swift and treacherous, noble Hera replied: 'Give me Love, give me Desire now, the powers you use to overwhelm all gods and mortal men!' / Aphrodite, smiling her eternal smile, replied: 'Impossible – worse, it is a mistake to refuse your warm request…'”. Then, Hera joins forces with Sleep to betray Zeus, which allows Poseidon to help the Achaeans. Aphrodite's power causes her to create a plan in which Zeus is seduced and puts her to sleep while they make love. “'Sleep, master of all gods and all mortal men,...Sleep Zeus for me! Close his shining eyes as soon as I lie with him, locked in love, and I will give you gifts…'". Here we observe that Hera tempts Sleep with bribes, as people often do when they know that something they want is difficult to obtain. These envious, deceptive, humanistic qualities of the gods inevitably produce disagreements among themselves, which in turn manifest themselves in the lives of mortals Say no to plagiarism. measure on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In polytheistic Greek cultures such as that of the world of The Iliad, the gods affect the lives of mortals based primarily on their individual whims. people have their own contingent of gods who support them, but also other gods who do not like them and whom they do not worship. This conflict between the influences of the favor of a god and the threat of one. Another on the Achaeans is represented in the death of Patroclus, Achilles' brother-in-arms. Hera and Poseidon help immensely in stopping the Trojans from burning the Achaeans' ship. Patroclus, no longer able to sit idly by while his comrades die, takes action and kills many Trojans; however, when fighting Hector, Apollo is angered by Patroclus' zeal. “…Apollo knocked the helmet off his head and under his horse's hooves he fell… / Disaster seized him – his slender legs buckled – he stood there, senseless… / Hector… rushed at him through the lines and thrust his spear shaft all the way home, stabbing deep into the intestines…”. The death of Patroclus is devastating to the morale of the Achaean armies and, more central to the story, it further disrupts Achilles' already unbalanced sophrosyne. The torment Achilles endures here embodies the human condition. After reading Homer's text, we realize that although it contains a beautiful poetic story, it is actually about the human condition and how it affects people, Achilles first and foremost. The reality for people in the world of The Iliad is that they live under many gods, and they cannot please all of them; indeed, the gods are at odds with each other and to support one is to antagonize another. While the ideal condition for the Greeks is to possess sophrosyne, in reality there are too many uncontrollable external pressures to achieve this. Just as the gods who influence men are not harmonious, we also find this quality in the explanation of the human condition in Greek cultures. In the case of Christianity, we first consider how the human condition appears in the Book of Job, an exemplary text in this case which tells the story of Job, a manpious and righteous, relentlessly tormented by God. During several discussions with three of his friends, Job asserts that he has not sinned against God and that God is punishing him unjustly. God finally appears before Job and his friends in "The Voice of the Whirlwind" and forces Job to justify his claim that God has acted unjustly. “'Has God's accuser resigned? Has my critic swallowed his tongue?' » Job responds and the conversation continues: “'I am speechless: what can I say? I put my hand over my mouth. I have already said too much; now I won't speak anymore. / [God continues] “Do you dare to deny my judgment? Am I wrong because you are right? Is your arm like the arm of God? Can your voice bellow like mine?'" Although God recognizes Job's correct assertion that he had not sinned, this does not mean that God's actions were unjustified. The reason we find here to explain Job's suffering is that God has knowledge far greater than that of any human being; he is greater and more powerful. On this basis, anyone can suffer, regardless of his piety. It is interesting to note that the human condition here is the same as that of the Greeks while worshiping God will minimize suffering, as will worshiping the gods one favors for the Greeks, God or gods who do not favor one; individual could just as easily intensify it. Another form of the human condition is described in the Old Testament book of Exodus, in which the God of Moses and the Israelites enter into a covenant with his people. covenant for the Israelites are clear in the ten commandments he gives to his people. God's reciprocity for their worship is described as follows: “'Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and your water. I will remove sickness from among you, and no one will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a complete life. / I will send my terror before you and throw into confusion all the nations you meet. I will make all your enemies turn and flee. » Here, the human condition must then be the suffering that results when a person fails or refuses to worship God and no longer has His protection. While for the Greeks the human condition rested in an external locus of control, for Christians it is generally internal. We note that God's actions in Job contradict the covenant He made with the Israelites, but Job is not an Israelite and the covenant may not apply. However, in Job's epilogue, God also admits that Job has spoken the truth about him and gives him back double what he took from him during the trials. From the latter perspective, God is benevolent rather than fanciful and the human condition is determined internally by a person's piety. We understand the human condition in Christianity as linked to the reality of man through his creation by God. God is omniscient and omnipotent, and we find proof of this (among other places) in the dialogue of Job. He said: “'Only God is wise; knowledge is His alone,'" and later, when speaking to God, "'I know that you can do anything and that nothing you wish for is impossible. / I spoke of the unspeakable and I tried to grasp the infinite.' » God therefore did not create man out of necessity, but rather out of love so that man could rule other animals in the image of God and worship God for His perfection. When man sins against God, he refutes God's infinity and does not receive his benevolence. The human condition therefore results from the violation of a personal obligation towards its creator. Plato also considered the human condition in The Republic as itapplies to both just and unjust people. In his allegory of the caves, he describes four stages of cognition and how they represent the ascension of the physical objects of the world into true reality, composed of forms of knowledge. His entire model is created to facilitate exploration of the nature of justice; and, before examining knowledge as applied to justice, Plato determines that justice must be the best quality to possess. “Justice belongs to the most valuable category. It is the good that the happy man loves both for itself and for the effects it produces. » We should intuitively value justice more than anything else because it is the greatest good; however, to explain the effects of Good on people, Plato describes the hierarchy of cognition with his allegory of caves. Plato's cognitive model is separated by two distinct sources of perception: the sun, which governs the physical world of lower-order perceptions, and the good, which governs true reality and of which are the forms, pure order and highest of knowledge. We are able to move from the realm of the sun to the realm of good through our observations of physical objects and our subsequent belief that, although none of the objects we see are perfect replicas of their natural forms, somewhere in the Beyond the physical world, the perfect form of every object resides. “'You also know that [mathematicians] use visible shapes and objects and subject them to analysis. At the same time, however, they regard them only as images of the originals... / And all the while they seek a reality that only the mind can discover.' » Once an individual understands mathematically the primary object from which all of his or her physical reproductions are derived, he or she can use this principle as a figurative stepladder to reach the reason behind it. This reason, or knowledge, is the mental perception of the corresponding form; it is truth, beauty, justice and good. After constructing his model of good, right, and truth based on cognition, Plato realizes a problem in that even the most righteous people can suffer from physical illnesses and lead difficult lives. His solution to this problem, however, is not elegantly derived from logical discourse, but is instead a mythological account of the reincarnation of the soul. Describing how man achieves his best state through the many physical incarnations of his soul, Plato writes: “'Thus [a man] will learn to avoid excess. He will choose a life that avoids extremes, both in this world, as far as possible, and in all life to come. Because this is how a man will find his greatest happiness. independent of the physical world, this model of reincarnation is reasonable. In it, the soul can sometimes move away from good; however, righteous souls always return to good through reason because they understand that there is no better quality to possess. In Platonism, the human condition therefore resides entirely in each person. The true reality is that the goodness of the soul is determined by the extent to which it (the mind, which is a function of the soul) possesses knowledge and is therefore able to exercise reason to maintain the balance. The human condition in the physical world is therefore relatively unimportant, because it is not internal to the soul. Plato would identify internal imbalance as a much more serious type of suffering, which is consistent with his model of true reality, as knowledge and reason are strictly functions of the soul and not the physical world. One must achieve the greatest good and maintain it throughout one's life; the problem of suffering.