The Role of the Gods in the Odyssey In the ancient world, the gods of the Greeks were predominantly confined to cosmological actions prior to Homer's works. "As Hesiod expounded the roles of the gods in his Theogony and in the Works and Days, it is evident that although the gods were active in the creation of the cosmos, natural phenomena, and cyclical events such as the seasons, they were not, however, functioning in any way historical" (Bloom 36). This strictly cosmological view of the gods was not at all unusual in the ancient world. Although the introduction of theology into historical events was perhaps first introduced by the Jews in the early first millennium BCE, it soon found echoes in the religious paradigms of homo religiosus throughout the Near East and Europe. In the 7th and 6th centuries BCE another predominant thought swept through the ancient world; life is suffering. From the mixture of these two thoughts an obvious question arises; If the gods operate in the historical reality of humanity, why do they allow and/or cause suffering? This is the dilemma that Homer sets out to resolve in his epic poem The Odyssey. Viewing Odysseus as the model of homo religiosus who is well trained in the rituals and customs of the gods, Homer attempts to show how the life story of such a man can be full of suffering. Furthermore, no matter whether the suffering is inflicted by fate, the will of the gods, other people, or the desires of man, the gods themselves have divined a system that will work to alleviate man's intolerable condition. One of the central terms in The Odyssey is the heart. For Homer the heart is the axis mundi of man. After Odysseus arrives on the island of the Phoenicians for the first time, Homer associates...... middle of paper ......and Homer's life. Furthermore, two and a half millennia later, this teaching is still a mainstay of all major world religions. Therefore, Homer introduced the understanding of how if the gods participated in historical time it would allow man to establish a prosperous relationship with them, and thus eliminate the endless cycle of suffering. Works Cited and Consulted Bloom, Harold, Homer's Odyssey: Edited and with an Introduction, NY, Chelsea House 1988 Crane, Gregory, Calypso: Backgrounds and Conventions of the Odyssey, Frankfurt, Athenaeum 1988 David W. Tandy and Walter C. Neale ( ed. and trans.), Hesiod's Works and Days: A Translation and Commentary for the Social Sciences. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. Pp. xiv, 149.Heubeck, Alfred, J.B. Hainsworth, et al. A commentary on Homer's Odyssey. 3 volumes Oxford PA4167 .H4813 1988