In Greek literature the gods are a huge
part in the lives of mere mortals. But, not all Greek literature relies on the
gods for the involvement in their lives. In the cases of the Iliad, Oedipus,
and Thucydides’ Plague each writing has a different scenario of how the gods
are, or are not, involved, what caused the plague, and how the people reacted
to it.
In Homer’s Iliad the plague was sent by
Apollo to the Greek soldiers’ camp after Agamemnon and Achilles took two Trojan
maidens. Chryseis’ father offered Agamemnon a large ransom if he were to return
Chryseis back but Agamemnon denied it. At this time is when Chryses (Chryseis father)
prayed to Apollo for help. Apollo saw the selfish actions of Agamemnon and Achilles
and sent the plague to the people of Thebes for Chryses. In lines 13-15 of the
Iliad Homer writes, “Agamemnon had dishonored Chryses, Apollo’s priest, so the
god Struck the Greek camp with plague.” A seer tells Achilles that it was
Apollo and Chryses who caused the plague to happen and Agamemnon gets incredibly
upset and says that he will return Chryseis only if Achilles gives his maiden,
Briseis, to him. Agamemnon and Achilles get into a fight but no one is hurt. As
soon as Chryseis is returned to her father the plague is lifted. I think the
problem with this plague is that Agamemnon and Achilles were too prideful to
think about anyone but their own interests.
In Oedipus Rex the plague was sent by the
gods to the people of Thebes. Sophocles writes lines 24-28 “For the city, as
you yourself can see, is badly shaken already and from the waves can no longer
lift her head above this bloody tossing; there is death in the fruitful buds from
the earth and in the pasturing herds, and even in the childless births of
women.” The disease was preventing life
from being created and from being sustained. The plague was sent because of
Oedipus’ ignorance, anger, and hubris. Because Oedipus did not realize that he
had committed a murder of the king the gods decided to punish the entire city
of Thebes. It was made known to Oedipus that once the murderer was found the
city would be saved. The people tried to please the gods by gathering around
the kingdom and offered gifts to the gods for mercy to lift the plague.
In Thucydides’ Histories (of the Peloponnesian
War) the cause of the plague was unknown. Thucydides says about the plague “All
speculation as to its origin and its causes, if causes can be found adequate to
produce so great a disturbance, I leave to other writers, whether lay or
professional… there was no visible cause” (page 274). The people were dying. The
doctors were dying because they were around so many affected by the plague. It
affected so many because of its contagious nature that if you tried to help a
sick person, you yourself would become sick as well. The people here are interesting
because they accepted the plague as a part of life and tried to enjoy life as
much as possible because who knows if they will make it to the next day alive.
It is interesting to see how times have
changed through the writing. In the Iliad and Oedipus Rex both plagues were
sent by gods as some form of punishment due to a crime committed by a mortal.
But by the time Thucydides’ writing came around he wrote more factual and told
history by facts and known causes. In Sophocles’ and Homer’s time everything
that happened on Earth had a known cause – that usually came from a god
interfering with life on Earth. The Iliad is written is dactylic hexameter while
Oedipus Rex is written in free verse because it is written as a play. Thucydides’
writing is done in a simple historical analysis of the life of the people of
Athens.
