The Wild Hunt » chas http://wildhunt.org/blog Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:00:53 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 The “Third Man” and the Gods http://wildhunt.org/blog/2009/07/the-third-man-and-the-gods.html http://wildhunt.org/blog/2009/07/the-third-man-and-the-gods.html#comments Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:03:46 +0000 chas http://wildhunt.org/blog/?p=3156 Blogger Richard Fernandez discusses the “Third Man” phenomenon, when people under great stress feel that someone is with them or helping them.

The post made me think of the Iliad, when fighters are shielded by one god(dess) or another. (One of the commenters had a similar reaction.)

For instance, in Book 20, Poseidon whisks the Trogan fighter Aeneus away when invincible Achilles is about finish him off — that sort of thing.

I was raised Christian and heard Bible stories every Sunday. There was never any doubt whose side Yahweh was on in the wars of the Hebrews.

Consequently, it was a little strange at first to encounter the polytheistic world of the Iliad, in which the gods take sides. Unfair! Which is the “right” side?

But yet is not the Iliad a truer picture of the world we live in?

PS: The best cover design for the Iliad ever published is this one.

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