Essay Week 3

Image information: The Greek God Jupiter (Zeus): Source: Greek Mythology Pantheon

There are a lot of things about Greek/Roman Mythology that differs from modern day Gods and Goddesses in books and stories. Firstly, gods and goddesses are treated in a very different manner in Ovid's Metamorphoses than they are today. Today Gods and Goddesses are portrayed as regal and elegant, but more often than not they are above humans. There is very little human interaction and when they do it is to act in good faith. But after reading through a select stories from Ovid's Metamorphoses, that is not the impression I got from the Gods and Goddesses written about in them. 

Instead, the Greek gods give off this feeling of aloofness of human interaction--until it benefits them or if they are completely taken with a certain individual. Most noticeably is how Jupiter acts towards pretty much all women. He is uncaring of their consent or the lives of the women that he has ‘relationships’ with. Instead of acting like the man with super power in his universe, he acts childish when others discover his harmful actions. He does not take responsibility for his infidelity and instead tries extremely hard to cover up his actions by turning his lover into animals. It is hard to imagine that anyone would be willing to put a lot of faith in a god that does and is okay with doing irreprehensible things to other humans with any semblance of consciousness to the harshness of his actions.

But Jupiter is not like that when interacting with humans alone. He has no regard for the other gods. Jupiter cares not about the feelings of his wife or how his actions might affect her, nevertheless, he doesn’t worry about how her subsequent actions can affect the women he raped.

Gods and goddesses of today and yesterday were viewed in a very different manner. It is not surprising that over time gods and goddesses have evolved into creatures that are depicted as more and more aligned with humanity. People went from following gods who worked in their own favor and had their own agenda to a god (or many gods) who are invested in the lives of all humans, and their personal well-being.