Homeric theology, to hold that the
Gods are the cause of human ills; these are the consequences of man's
own actions. Furthermore, the cause is not a blind impersonal power
outside of the individual, it is not Fate but man himself. What a lofty
utterance! We hear from the supreme tribunal the final decision in
regard to individual free-will and divine government.

Not without significance is this statement put into the mouth of Zeus
and made his first emphatic declaration. We may read therein how the
poet would have us look at his poem and the intervention of the Gods.
We may also infer what is the Homeric view concerning the place of
divinity in the workings of the world.

Such being the command of Zeus, the interpreter has nothing to do but
to obey. No longer shall we say that the Gods in this Odyssey destroy
human freedom, but that they are deeply consistent with it; the divine
interference when it takes place is not some external agency beyond the
man altogether, but is in some way his own nature, veritably the
essence of his own will. Such is truly the thing to be seen; the poem
is a poem of freedom, and yet a poem of providence; for do we not hear
providence at the very start declaring man's free-will, and hence his
responsibility? The God, then, is not to destroy but to secure human
liberty in action, and to assert it on proper occasions. Thus Zeus
himself has laid down the law, the fundamental principle of Homer's
religion as well as of his poem.

Have the Gods, then, nothing to do in this world? Certainly they have,
and this is the next point upon which we shall hear our supreme
authority, Zeus. He has in mind the case of AEgisthus whom the Gods
warned not to do the wicked deed; still he did it in spite of the
warning, and there followed the penalty. So the Gods admonish the
wrong-doer, sending down their bright-flashing messenger Hermes, and
declaring through him the great law of justice: the deed will return
unto the doer. Zeus has now given expression to the law which governs
the world; it is truly his law, above all caprice. Moreover, the God
gives a warning to the sinner; a divine mercy he shows even in the
heathen world.

The case of AEgisthus, which Zeus has in mind, is indeed a striking
example of a supreme justice which smites the most exalted and
successful criminal. It made a profound impression upon the Greek
world, and took final shape in the sublime tragedy of AEschylus.
Throughout the _Odys