200867937 CLAS2700 Essay 3

School of Languages,
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Student ID: 200867937
Module Code: CLAS2700
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200867937 CLAS2700 Essay 3

School of Languages, Cultures

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200867937 CLAS2700 Essay 3

In addition to the major Olympian gods, many minor deities feature in the Iliad,

e.g. those associated with the natural world and personifications. What do these

non-Olympian deities contribute to the poem?

This essay will discuss the powerful impact that the countless minor deities

(immortals who are not Olympian residents) have on The Iliad; focusing on a few in

particular, I will discuss how they influence the decisions of mortals and major gods.

Firstly, personifications of Sleep, Death (Thanatos) and Ate affect the poem because

they are contributors to the mistakes of heroes. They also create a physical

connection between heaven and earth as the poetic technique is used by Homer to

make actions more relatable. Secondly, this essay will argue that Sleep and Thetis

are used by major gods to establish the hierarchy of immortal deities in the poem;

their individuality reflects the utility of their qualities for others as Sleep works for

Hera and Thetis is a maternal slave to her son Achilleus. Thirdly, the essay will

conclude by comparing Skamandros’ actions that challenge Achilleus, with Ker’s role

as the annihilator of humanity and even challenger of heroic values throughout the

poem. While they are presented as descriptions of “things which are not explained in

human terms”1, their contribution is to provide justification for the human mistakes

and the link between Gods in Olympus and mortals on the ground. It is important to

realise how rare their appearances are as they are used for specific individual

purposes by Homer.

Firstly, minor deities in the Iliad often form tangible personifications that link

the mortals and the major Gods such as Zeus. The brothers Sleep (Hypnos) and
1
Willcock 1970 p. 7.

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Death (Thanatos) in the Iliad become humanised figures that have individual

personalities which makes divinity more relatable to the audience of the poem.

Homer depicts Sleep as having mortal desires which accounts for his realistic

portrayal that impacts on the heroes. The Iliad confirms this when Sleep is offered a

wife by Hera in exchange for a favour 2. Offered one of Hera’s younger Graces,

Pasithea, Sleep is persuaded because “she is the one I have longed for all my days” 3

and this reveals the humanisation of Sleep which associates him closer to the

actions of mortals. Stafford analyses how an idea of a minor deity in love and

marrying increases the connection with Homer’s audience 4. His family relations to

Death as “twin brother”5 provides a personal relationship comparable to his

connection to sleeping Achaean warriors who could be “mastered by soft sleep” 6.

This time the personification has not only been used to reflect the personal

relationship that the god Sleep has with humans, but also how he can interweave

with the thoughts and actions of the heroes. Furthering this, it has been argued that

Sleep is used in The Iliad to reveal how personifications of human concepts can

influence the narrative7. Significantly, the purpose of Sleep combines the work of

divinity to mortals through actions that increase his relatability.

Another poetic technique used by Homer is to personify actions and explain

heroic mistakes by blaming personified deities – here the deification of the minor

goddess of disaster: Ate. The cause of Achilleus’ anger was passed to Ate who, as

“the accursed goddess who blinds all men” 8, is personified by Agamemnon when
2
Homer 1987 14.231-91.
3
Ibid. 14.276.
4
Stafford 2003 p. 75.
5
Homer 1987 16.671.
6
Ibid. 10.2-4.
7
Willcock 1977 p. 43.
8
Homer 1987 19.82-3.

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excusing his actions. Significantly, the personification of ate adds a dimension of

how to account for heroic weakness as in the context of the “anger of Achilleus” 9;

Whitman rightly points out that it is as if moral blindness intervenes and intrudes

even as early as the first words of the poem 10. As Ate can also affect the major

Gods, “even Zeus was blinded by her” 11, Homer uses her personification here to

reveal how minor deities can impact major gods as well as humans, making the

divine action in the poem more relatable to the audience. Furthermore, Ate is used in

relating Patroklos’ death as an act of Agamemnon’s “folly” 12. Although Ate is not

mentioned explicitly, the characteristics she brought to humans are explicitly

mentioned to highlight the disaster that awaits Patroklos at his later death 13. Though

Yamagata goes further to state that it is Achilleus becoming Ate that deluded

Patroklos, it is clear that Ate’s personification led to the destruction of mortals 14. This

can be seen by Homer’s description of Patroklos’ decision to fight as a “fatal error,

poor fool”15; Patroklos, like Agamemnon, was drawn to disaster by the goddess and

her actions.

Secondly, the way Homer uses minor gods as influential slaves to the needs

of mortals and major gods fluctuates through reciprocity which reveals how reliable

and obedient the minor deities are. This is clearly seen when Homer talks about

Sleep and Death. The only two times that Sleep, the personified deity, is mentioned,

9
Ibid. 1.1.
10
Whitman 1987 p. 18.
11
Homer 1987 19.96.
12
Ibid. 16.273.
13
Ibid. 16.855.
14
Yamagata 2005 p. 25.
15
Homer 1987 16.686-7.

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he is required to undertake the will of a god. The first case of this involves being

persuaded by Hera to put Zeus to sleep to allow Poseidon to help the Achaeans. Her

superlative phrasing of “Sleep, lord over all gods and all men” 16 as flattery, provides

an insight into Sleep’s worth to the poem. Homer furthers his power through a later

description of Sleep: “who conquers all” 17. However, when helping Hera, the poet

chooses to illustrate Sleep’s additional role as messenger to Poseidon “to bring the

news”18 of the event, rather than emphasising Sleep’s power in engulfing Zeus. The

emphasis on Sleep’s messenger role reveals the relegation of the supposed ‘lord

over all’ to mirror his lower stature as a minor god as well as how the gods can

always enlist the help of personified Sleep 19. Similar ways that Homer uses Sleep to

reveal a subordinate status, compared to the major gods, can be seen when a briefly

mentioned Sleep works with Death to carry away the dead “godlike Sarpedon” 20.

Their limited description exemplifies why Stafford writes of their depiction without any

divine features21. While the “swift”22 nature of Sleep alludes to his usefulness to the

Gods; the fluctuation of his power indicates how he is manipulated.

Similarly, Thetis exemplifies a minor deity who is enslaved but this time to her

maternal nature. Her role in the poem is subordinate to the major gods, but she is

the only goddess who can change certain events. Initially, Achilleus calls for Thetis’

help after mortals cannot calm his anger and the timing of this reflects her influence

that she will have over the poem. Achilleus’ call for his mother enhances the

audience’s first perception of Thetis as a mother who is forced to adhere to her son’s
16
Ibid. 14.234.
17
Ibid. 24.4-5.
18
Ibid. 14.355.
19
Stafford 2003 p. 74.
20
Homer 1987 16.638-9 and 16.678.
21
Stafford 2003 p. 76.
22
Homer 1987 16.671.

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demands, “since it was you who bore me” 23, despite her status as an independent

goddess. Achilleus’ reference to the obligation he feels she has to help him lends

weight to the view that Thetis is “subordinated to her maternal aspect in the poem” 24

which can be taken further to reflect how she is used in the Iliad at the times of

greatest divine influence. Interestingly, while other immortal mothers such as

Aphrodite also help their sons in the poem, such as rescuing wounded Aineias 25, it is

more often that their help was not requested but given. Achilleus requests his

mother’s help and this is mirrored in book twenty-four when Zeus also “calls” 26 for

Thetis. While in book one she sets on course the success of the Trojans through

Zeus, she is later used by the major gods to persuade Achilleus to give back

Hektor’s body which ends the poem 27. Thetis’ role as a minor deity here therefore

represents her unique role in The Iliad as a character who can change the course of

the narrative. Indeed, Thetis’ utility to the poem is not only as a mother used by her

son, but in a similar way to Sleep, she also acts as a facilitator of communication

between Olympos and mortals.

Finally, the minor gods Skamandros, Thetis and Ker are sometimes

described as being as formidable as the major gods and more powerful than

mortals to represent how natural phenomena and minor deities can influence the

narrative. The power of the river is personified as the god Skamandros and his

interaction with Achilleus epitomises the influential role of minor deities in the

poem. While Skamandros is not omnipotent and struggles with the bodies

23
Ibid. 1.352.
24
Slatkin 1991 p. 31.
25
Homer 1987 5.311-17.
26
Ibid. 24.85.
27
Ibid. 24.107-118.

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Achilleus has left slain in the river28, he fights the “invincible hands”29 of Achilleus

so powerfully that the hero flees “terrified” 30. This passage plays an important role

in revealing how Homer’s world viewed natural phenomena as formidable as it

can halt Achilleus’ aristae. Even the major Olympian gods such as Hera “shout

out in terror”31 which reveals the strength of this minor god. As Hera calls

Hephaistos fights him with fire 32, a battle of two important natural phenomena in

Greek oral tradition, Homer indicates how impactful even a minor deified river

can be against the Olympians and their favourites. Thetis, like Skamandros who

returned Achilleus to the mortal half of his semi-divinity, powerfully contributes to

the poem as she reveals the weaknesses of others. She becomes the catalyst for

directly changing the future of the war through influencing Zeus’ decisions in a

way that other major gods in The Iliad cannot. Evidence for this occurs when she

“sat beside father Zeus, and Athene made way for her” 33. Building on this, Slatkin

highlights the exceptionality of Thetis by describing the consideration she

receives as evidence for exemplifying her “extraordinary authority” as she

controls the narrative34. The contemporary audience would recognise the

significance of this as previously Athene describes Thetis’ authority as Zeus

“brought about the designs of Thetis” 35. Athene does not demote Thetis as a

minor deity and through her acceptance of Thetis’ equally important stature, this

reveals how minor gods are often as powerful as major gods. Clearly,

28
Ibid. 21.218-22.
29
Ibid. 20.503.
30
Ibid. 21.247.
31
Ibid. 21.325-6.
32
Ibid. 21.332-42.
33
Ibid. 24.100-1.
34
Slatkin 1991 p. 53-4.
35
Homer 1987 8.370-72.

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Skamandros and Thetis provide some of the examples of the command that

even minor divinity can display as they reveal their own personal immortal power

in the poem.

Ker, a minor deity, is also a powerful contributor to the poem as a cause of

tragedy. Ker or Death, being the female spirit of death alongside “tame” 36

Thanatos, impacts the poem as a personified destructive force on the shield of

Achilleus. The grotesque description of her actions on the shield of Achilleus,

where “cruel Death”37 clutched dead men and “fought like living men” 38 in a deific

scene that reflects the brutality of Ker 39. Her personification indicates how the

description of the shield foreshadows the devastation that Achilleus will cause

later in the poem, as identified by Burton 40. The context of the shield, with the

scene being described as displaying the earth, sea and heavens, reveals the

significance of her placement in that scene as all-powerful among more major

deities. The power of her depiction in The Iliad, can be supported by the heroes

avoiding Ker for fear of the power Homer allows her to wield. While she is not

alluded to directly as in the shield, “godlike Paris” 41 witnesses the power she

wields by retreating from her “to avoid destruction” 42. Significantly, Ker is

commonly associated with the idea one’s destined path in The Iliad; the fear of

Paris reflects this as withdraws from a gruesome death at the hands of

Menalaos. Patroklos echoes the sentiment of Ker’s power as he foreshadows the

36
Burton 2005, p. 54.
37
Homer 1987 18.535-6.
38
Ibid. 18.539.
39
Ibid. 18.535-40.
40
Burton 2005 p. 54.
41
Homer 1987 3.30.
42
Ibid. 3.32.

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death of Achilleus with doom (ker) having “swallowed”43 Patroklos. The continual

reflection of Ker as a force that is immortally unavoidable indicates how Homer

artistically shapes the minor deities to be omnipotent in the face of mortals but

still efficacious with major gods. Therefore, Ker aligns with Thetis and

Skamandros’ roles in the poem as subtly strong forces that bring about change

and malign destruction.

To conclude, the usefulness of the minor deities in The Iliad shows

fluctuating but influential personifications of aspects of human decisions and

natural phenomena that explain and cause the course of events for the will of

major deities. Thetis provides the exception to this as she is a character who

directly converses with humans and major gods, and this also provides a human

link between the mortals and the unexplainable. She is used alongside Death

and Sleep as pawns in the major gods’ bidding. Homer’s versatile use of these

characters also lends strength to their actions. Thetis alone can influence Zeus’

largest decisions in the Trojan war and Skamandros fights Achilleus with a power

that was unexpected. Thetis provides a direct line of communication between the

immortal and mortal world and aligns with Sleep to generate a powerful presence

in the world of the poem. The personifications in the Greek oral tradition

rationalise the worst fears and mysteries that contemporary Greeks

contemplated and challenge Olympos’ hegemonic control of events. From Ker

and Ate’s destructive characteristics that challenge heroic values of honour, to

the fraternity of Sleep and Death, Homer utilises the independence of minor

43
Ibid. 23.79-80.

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deities when writing about their influential actions. This leads paradoxically to

their great power but diminished status.

Word Count: 2,175

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Homer. 1987. The Iliad, tr. Hammond, M. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Secondary Sources

Burton, Diana. 2005. The gender of death, In: Stafford, E. and Herrin J.

eds. Personification in the Greek World: from Antiquity to Buzantium. Aldershot:

Ashgate. pp. 45-68.

Dietrich, Bernard, 1965. Death, fate and the gods: the development of a religious

idea in Greek popular belief and in Homer. London: Athlone Press.

Slatkin, Laura. 1991. The power of Thetis: allusion and interpretation in the Iliad.

Oxford: University of California Press.

Stafford, E. 2003. Brother, son, friend and healer: Sleep the god. In: Dowden, K. and

Wiedemann, T. eds. Sleep. Bari: Levante Editori. pp. 71-106.

Whitman, Jon. 1987. Allegory: the dynamics of an ancient and medieval technique.

Oxford: Clarendon.

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200867937 CLAS2700 Essay 3

Willcock, M. M. 1970. ‘Some aspects of the gods in the Iliad’ Bulletin of the Institute

of Classical Studies. Vol. 17, pp. 1-10.

Willcock, M. M., 1977. ‘Ad Hoc Invention in the Iliad’. Harvard Studies in Classical

Philology, Vol. 81, pp. 41-53.

Yamagata, Naoko. 2005. Disaster revisited - Ate and the Litai in Homer's Iliad. In:

Stafford, Emma and Herrin, Judith eds. Personification in the Greek world: from

Antiquity to Byzantium. Aldershot: Ashgate. pp. 21–28.

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