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> I think the OP's point is crudely valid. Greek gods basically wanted you to pray and appease them, more or less. Jesus and the Buddha wanted you to be a funda
by leftyted 8y ago
> I think the OP's point is crudely valid. Greek gods basically wanted you to pray and appease them, more or less. Jesus and the Buddha wanted you to be a fundamentally better person, moreover, they were themselves enshrined in a metaphysical spirituality.
"Being a better person" means different things in different moral frameworks. Plato fought in wars. Jesus didn't. We don't live under a moral framework where "dying in battle is the ultimate virtue, regardless of which side you were on". The Greeks did, though.
It's unclear to me how anyone familiar with Greek mythology could make the claim that the Greek gods were unconcerned with morality. The story of Sisyphus is a moral lesson. Greek myths are full of that stuff: characters are punished for some sin or rewarded for some virtue.
- sonnyblarney 8y agoI don't think anyone is suggesting that Greek mythology is absent any kind of moral impetus. But the Greek Gods seem fairly petty, jealous, vain etc.. Their description in the Ilyad puts them as 'superhumans' more than anything, there is definitely no overarching metaphysical appeal to either morality, or towards stoic search for meaning of life etc.. It's like they're just the superhuman overlords humans have to deal with.
- ABCLAW 8y agoHomer wasn't the only person writing in the classical period. His contemporary, Hesiod, depicted gods as immortal arbiters of justice in Works and Days. The Ilyad clearly has struck some narrative gold, but was in no way the only manner in which the pantheon was portrayed.