divine, they have laboured to produce theological consistency and system, the actual religion of an actual
historical moment. Here again, in my view, they produce their theologies as the answer to questions of a
sort which it is not appropriate to ask of a work of literature. They ask, for example, what kind of god is
Fate (Moira), and is Fate more powerful than Zeus? When Athena intervenes in Iliad 1. 193 ff. is she
merely a poetic personification of Achilles' better judgement? What is the function and power of non-
Olympian powers such as Ocean, Sun, Scamander?
One illustration will have to suffice to suggest how the gods in Homer do not have a theological existence
independent of particular poetic context. In Iliad 22 Achilles is pursuing Hector round Troy:
But when for the fourth time they had come around to the well springs
then the Father balanced his golden scales, and in them
he set two fateful portions of death, which lays men prostrate,
one for Achilles, and one for Hector, breaker of horses,
and balanced it by the middle; and Hector's death-day was heavier
and dragged downward toward death, and Phoebus Apollo forsook him.(22.208-133)
It seems to me simple-minded to conclude from this that Fate is superior to Zeus because Fate must tip the
scales. In the context it is clear that the scales do not determine who will win, but when Achilles will win.
The outcome of the battle is already put beyond doubt by many other factors, human, divine, and poetic:
the scales mark a dramatic turning-point. It is at this point that Apollo leaves Hector and Athena joins
Achilles. But it would again be a theological oversimplification to conclude that the battle is merely
divine puppetry without any place for human achievement. The gods do not change the outcome of the
battle. Nor do they diminish the victory or the defeat; on the contrary their interest and participation
elevate them. Great heroic deeds are marked by the attention of the gods. So the golden scales are neither
a real theological belief nor mere picturesque ornament; they are the elevation of a turning-point.
The conclusion that the Homeric world is through and through on every level a poetic amalgam is in no
way inconsistent with its having exerted a powerful influence on the real life of the Greeks over the next
1,000 years after its creation. Homer provided one persuasive, universally known, and inspiring model of
heroism, nobility, the good life, the gods. Homer affected history. But it is not by being a faithful
representation of history that his world-picture has captured the imagination of so many people for so
long. It is much more memorable and universal than that.
There does remain, however, one time and place in history which Homer tells us about, though indirectly.
There must have been an occasion for the creation of the Iliad and Odyssey. The very fact that they came
into existence says a lot about the concerns and sensibilities of Homer's own audience. For I take it as
axiomatic that these great works of art would never have come into existence without an audience. There
must have been people who were willing to pay attention to these poems, to make the trouble worth
Homer's while by listening to them properly-and quite likely by supplying his livelihood also. They must
have been able to appreciate Homer: otherwise he would never have made the poems. And if the Iliad and