"...there wasn't much for me to put on this. I grumbled a little about your failure to italicize titles and I disagreed with your characterization of Job, but I thought this was an amazing essay. Indeed, so far this is the best essay I've received in this class and one of the best essays I've received this semester. Your writing is cogent and carefully thought out. Well done!" -- Prof. Amey, NVCC
Patricia H
Prof. Amey
English 251
10/17/2015
Tragic Victims or Truly Sinners? Heroes in the Hands of Angry Gods
Throughout
religious mythology, the question has been raised as to whether or
not the suffering of men is brought on solely by their actions. In
both the Odyssey and the Book of Job, the main characters' fates are
ultimately determined and destroyed, then remade at the hands of
gods. Though both live very different lives, redeemed and unredeemed,
they both suffer in similar ways and it perpetuates the question –
do bad things only happen to bad people, or do gods act destructively
regardless of the loyalty of their worshipers?
In both The Odyssey
and the Old Testament's Book of Job, the main characters and their
companions sacrifice willingly to their gods. Entire families and
communities give up their finest livestock to represent their love
for their deities in the hopes that this will mean safety and
blessings. In both stories, despite the practice of religious law,
both men are robbed of everything in their lives. In The Odyssey,
Odysseus has served in a war between both man and the Gods. Despite
this service, he is robbed of all he knew in his previous life and
must push through repeated trials and tribulations in order to find
his way back to the life that he knew. In the book of Job, a
religious man is also robbed of everything he knew – despite having
been known as a religious man – and is forced to suffer illness and
ridicule from those closest to him. They are both placed there
through the actions of the gods in control of their lives.
However, neither
man is truly innocent. Both Odysseus and Job are extremely prideful,
and particularly in Odysseus's case, this has a direct impact on his
fate on repeated occasions in his story. During his visit to the Land
of the Cyclopes, he destroys Polyphemus's eye and then in his pride
declares his name to
Poseidon, Polyphemus's father. This leads to Poseidon personally
attempting to ruin Odysseus at every turn on his journey back to
Ithaca. In the case of Job, he puts his pride in his family, his
wealth, and his achievements in life. He allows his children to act
sinfully, but simply expects immediate forgiveness through material
sacrifice to God. “When their time of feasting had concluded, Job
would rise early in the morning to send for them and consecrate them
to God. He would offer a burnt offering for each one, because Job
thought, “Perhaps my children sinned by cursing God in their
hearts.” Job did this time and again.” (Job, 1:5) His blind
belief and adherence to ritual keeps him from seeing that his faith
in God is actually minimal. His near false-idolization of his lands
and livestock interfere with his close relationship with God. The
scripture suggests that although Job says morally 'right,' things, he
only ever speaks about God – never with Him – and that it is
Job's fear of God himself that keeps Job faithful. (Job 4:6) Though
God Himself never seems to recognize this as a flaw in Job in His
discussion with the character Satan, it becomes all together apparent
after discussions between Job's friends and the over-all flow of the
story.
The two stories are
unlike in that, while Job eventually becomes repentant and maintains
his positive faith in God, Odysseus's actions and personality remain
relatively stagnant in the story. His pride fails to diminish as he
eventually makes it back to his home in Ithaca. “Throwing
off his rags, resourceful Odysseus sprang to the wide threshold with
the bow and the full quiver, poured the arrows out at his feet, and
addressed the Suitors: ‘Here is a clear end to the contest. Now
I’ll see if I can hit another target no man has as yet, and may
Apollo grant my prayer!’” (Book
XXII:1-67) He proceeds to slay not only every suitor to have
remained on his grounds, but the families of the suitors who come to
seek revenge after the massacre. In Odysseus's case, while his
livestock may have have been whittled away and his home intruded, his
family remains and as does his title. This does nothing to reform
Odysseus's behavior, or serve as his redemption after years of
massacre and destruction at his hands.
This was hardly how
it was for Job. At the hands of Satan, by permission of God, Job is
stripped of his livestock, his lands, and of his children. His wife
is driven insane with grief and Job himself is stripped of his good
health and is plagued during his trials. Unlike Odysseus, he refuses
to curse his god, despite repeatedly being tempted to – not only by
his wife, but by his friends as well. “Then his wife told him, 'Do
you remain firm in your integrity? Curse God and die!'” (Job 2:9)
He is then openly blamed for what has happened to him, as his friends
claim that surely nothing like that would have happened to him
without Job having sinned against God. (Job 4:7-9) In this, Job is
far more a victim in his circumstances than Odysseus is. Not only is
Job proclaimed a sinner and ridiculed by those remaining whom he
holds dear (Job 12:4-6), he is stricken will illness and what he lost
he never fully recovers. Though he is eventually granted new children
and his wealth is eventually restored, he no longer has his grown
children and the memories he once had with them. It can never
possibly be the same for Job as it could be for Odysseus at the end
of their stories.
In the story the
Odyssey, the gods are figures who can take multiple forms and often
accompany the hero Odysseus on his journey. Odysseus's aid and
advocate was the goddess Athena. She protects him in a majority of
his struggles, swears her fealty in battle to him (Book XX:1-55) and
even communicates with Odysseus's son, Telemachus. In the Old
Testament, God and his angels appear only a select few times to God's
devoted followers. An appearance such as this, however, never happens
to Job. Despite the different mythologies in which the two characters
exist, both Odysseus's gods and Job's one God have many elements in
common. Both are attributed with every aspect of the world – from
weather to disease and the creation of new life. In contrast to Greek
mythology, the Old Testament of which Job is a part holds that there
is a covenant between God and man against the needless deaths of
humans. If this is to be applied to the story of Job, Job's
indiscretion notwithstanding, it paints the Old Testament God as a
violent and senseless being who does
coincide with the violent and tempestuous
gods of Greek mythology; neither parties giving regard to the
wellness or purity of their worshipers, who would exact violence and
childish revenge
upon
those they see fit.
In The Iliad, the gods chose sides on the parts of either the Trojans or
the Athenians. Amongst the gods who later influenced The Odyssey,
Apollo aided the Trojans – Hera, Athena, Poseidon and Hermes sided
with the Athenians. This speaks to the fact that despite the
Athenians having served as pawns in a god's game, and therefore
despite
Odysseus's service under the gods, the same gods whom he'd served
later became
perpetrators
of his suffering. Poseidon destroys his ships and attempts to kill
him on several occasions, while even Zeus – the neutral god of the
Trojan War – aids Poseidon
in sending storm that washes
Odysseus ashore and reshapes his journey yet again (Book
V:262-312). It is in this way
that the Greek gods are often known – influenced by emotion and
often childish desire, a magnified expression
of elements of
humanity. The God of the Old
Testament is much the same. In the books of the Old Testament there
are tales of great destructive plagues (Moses) and the destruction of
entire towns in a flash of fire (Genesis), brought on by a wrathful
God. He brings suffering to both the innocent and the sinful, before
and after the covenant He creates with His people. With
little regard to life given by both the Old Testament God and the
gods of the Greeks, it leaves the question as to if the sins of Job
and Odysseus can be said to influence their stories at all – or if
the gods simply would have done what they wanted regardless.
In
conclusion, neither man is innocent and in many ways they were
deserving of their gods' anger. Odysseus's pride and
capacity for cruelty and brutality against his fellow man leaves him
up for judgment not only by his fellow man but by the powerful gods
to whom he prays and serves. He
was robbed of his family and his property
because of his participation in the Trojan War. His personality and
willingness to exact brutality does not change despite the lessons
and repeated punishments he receives
during the Odyssey as he attempts to return to Ithaca. Despite this,
he is allowed to return to his family and his home, with
comparatively less lost than in the case of Job from the Old
Testament. In the Old Testament, Job's empty faith and pride in his
accomplishments, land and family blind him to the fact that Job fears
God more than he truly loves Him. This is something that Satan
recognizes and attempts to exploit in taking away everything from Job
– anticipating that Job's reaction would be to curse God and prove
Satan's predictions true. While Job is stripped of everything he
refuses to curse God and damns himself, wishing for death. After
his tribulations, he is blessed by God with a new family.
Compared to Odysseus, Job's
only sin is his false pride, and therefore it makes it a question as
to why their punishments seem unequal. Odysseus is only separated
from his loved ones until his return from Ithaca. Job completely
looses his children, and new children to raise and love will still
never replace that initial loss. In the case of Job, I feel that a
man who knew no better was punished unfairly by his destructive god –
stripped of everything he knew at the hands of a notoriously
destructive Old Testament God. Therefore,
in the case of Job I believe he suffers an unjustly severe punishment
at the hands of an angry god. Odysseus receives a punishment fitting
many of the deeds he perpetrates, but then is returned to the life he
once knew. So bad things do in fact happen to bad people – but the
severity to which they happen is determined by unfair and heavy
handed gods.
