The Greek epic poems the Illiad and the Odyssey are undoubtedly among the most widely discussed pieces of literature in the world. This is hardly surprising, for not only are they of vital importance in tracing the history and development of Western thought, but they are superb pieces of art as well.

A favorite area of the subject in which scholars have focused: their attention is the use of the gods in the Homeric epics, and this is understandably so, for throughout the lines of the great poems the gods dominate the action. In the epics the gods are responsible for natural phenomena; the gods decide who is to triumph, who is to fall, who is to kill or be killed. The Homeric characters are quick to assert this themselves. Achilles, for instance, remarked that the Acheans would win only if Zeus allows us to ring down the battlements of Troy.