Describe odysseus' relationship with the greek gods. does he trust them? do they care about him? does having their favor promise him a good life? does having their enmity spell certain doom? what is surprising about these relationships, and what does that show you?

Even if the gods have not regarded Odysseus' plight

for some years, they do remember his sacrifices,

eventually. As the epic unfolds, we read how Odysseus is

helped by Athena and Zeus, despite Poseidon's return.

Telemachus has his own adventures and is kept safe from the

asassination plot of the suitors. Odysseus is disguised

and aided by gods and men until he kills the suitors in his

home and regains the rule of Ithaca.

In fact, this appears, at first, to be a much more

consistent theology and a simpler theodicy than that

presented in the Iliad. In the former epic the gods

sometimes helped those who were faithful in sacrifice and

sometimes did not. In the Odyssey, at first glance, it is

the god-fearing family of Odysseus, Telemachus, Penelope

and faithful slaves who are heard by the gods while all

those who break the rules are punished. Examples of such

people are given in Book I. Aegisthus is a case that Zeus

brings up for discussion.53 The suitors too deserve

punishment. Even Odysseus' companions are blamed, in the

proem, for their own destruction, the reason they did not

reach home as Odysseus did.54

Odysseus does not carry the epithet pius that Aeneas

will when Vergil writes. But as far as the main outline of

the action in this epic is concerned, Odysseus is as

faithful toward the gods as any man, and the gods care for

him as much as they care for anyone.

Explanation: