Summary: In school, one of the books many of us had to read was The Odyssey by the ancient Greek poet Homer. Over the years I have gone back and reread it and listened to it as a recorded book. What has struck me as I have re-read and listened to The Odyssey is how much better, how much nobler, are the human heroes than the gods in this story. In The Odyssey and in the Greek myths, the gods are vindictive, petty. They are deceitful. They play favorites. They make a sport out of interfering in human lives. The goddess, Calypso keeps poor Odysseus prisoner on her island, far from Ithaca, from his wife and his son, because she wants him as her own. Poseidon, the God of the seas, also keeps Odysseus from making it home, inflicting disaster after disaster on him and his men. And while the goddess Athena is Odysseus' champion, on Olympus, the gods compete with each other, using poor Odysseus as a pawn in their power struggles with one another. It is no wonder that the Greek philosopher Socrates did not encourage his students to read these stories. He thought that the gods in Greek poetry were immoral and unworthy of respect. Like many, he gave the gods their due, probably observed the public rituals, but after that he left the gods alone. And this view of the ancient gods was fairly common. Once you had offered the appropriate sacrifices, not violate sacred places, don't harm priests, but mostly don't draw attention to yourself. Don't let the gods become too involved with you, because any glory won from the gods would be offset by a greater measure of suffering. Getting involved with the gods was dangerous and to be avoided.
