d above the love and war that are his main themes, there is
another which the author never loses sight of--I mean distrust and
dislike of the ideas of his time as regards the gods and omens. No
poet ever made gods in his own image more defiantly than the author
of the Iliad. In the likeness of man created he them, and the only
excuse for him is that he obviously desired his readers not to take
them seriously. This at least is the impression he leaves upon his
reader, and when so great a man as Homer leaves an impression it
must be presumed that he does so intentionally. It may be almost
said that he has made the gods take the worse, not the better, side
of man's nature upon them, and to be in all respects as we
ourselves--yet without virtue. It should be noted, however, that
the gods on the Trojan side are treated far more leniently than
those who help the Greeks.

The chief gods on the Grecian side are Juno, Minerva, and Neptune.
Juno, as you will shortly see, is a scolding wife, who in spite of
all Jove's bluster wears the breeches, or tries exceedingly hard to
do so. Minerva is an angry termagant--mean, mischief-making, and
vindictive. She begins by pulling Achilles' hair, and later on she
knocks the helmet from off the head of Mars. She hates Venus, and
tells the Grecian hero Diomede that he had better not wound any of
the other gods, but that he is to hit Venus if he can, which he
presently does 'because he sees that she is feeble and not like
Minerva or Bellona.' Neptune is a bitter hater.

Apollo, Mars, Venus, Diana, and Jove, so far as his wife will let
him, are on the Trojan side. These, as I have said, meet with
better, though still somewhat contemptuous, treatment at the poet's
hand. Jove, however, is being mocked and laughed at from first to
last, and if one moral can be drawn from the Iliad more clearly than
another, it is that he is only to be trusted to a very limited
extent. Homer's position, in fact, as regards divine interference
is the very opposite of David's. David writes, "Put not your trust
in princes nor in any child of man; there is no sure help but from
the Lord." With Homer it is, "Put not your trust in Jove neither in
any omen from heaven; there is but one good omen--to fight for one's
country. Fortune favours the brave; heaven helps those who help
themselves."

The god who comes off best is Vulcan, the lame, hobbling, old
blacksmith, who is the laughing-stock of all the ot