Even though the ancient Greek culture is polytheistic, and the new Christian faith, now the official religion of Rome, is monotheistic, this is not the main religious difference of the two cultures. Odysseus lives in a time, when gods are like people; Augustine lives in a time, when the Christian god is different; and He is expects people to be more like Him. Homer reflects the religious beliefs of the ancient world, while writing about “the heroic lives of the protagonists, not the rightness of the god’s plans for them” (DeVaney-Lovinguth). The Odyssey focuses on one man who survives war, personal tragedy, and human, as well as supernatural enemies. The story is, in the words of Athena, about “godlike Odysseus” (Book I, Line 71). But, Augustine …show more content…
Obedience and offerings to the gods, matter to the ancient Greeks; The Odyssey ends with the hero submitting to the will of Zeus, “The man obeyed and was glad” (Book XXIV, Line 568). But Odysseus schemes against gods, with the help of gods; the epic seems to end with Athena joyful and Poseidon still angry. The focus is not the mercy of Zeus. Odysseus declares to Alcinous, while reveling who he is, “my fame reaches even to heaven” (Book IX, Line 23). Meanwhile, Augustine writes of his lust, the fog that confuses his own thinking and emotions, and the goodness of God, even when there is pain and loss. He writes of the loss of his mother, the pain he brings to a woman in his life, and regret about his own sin; but he still calls Jesus “the true Medicine of our wounds” (1202). He does not write about his own life, as a man who is god-like, but he writes about love for a personal and faithful God. This is not the story of gods, taking sides and keeping secrets; this is the story of one man who is still discovering more about his own faith. Speaking to God about the prayers by his mother for him not to sail to Rome, and the answer of no which she receives because Augustine sneaks away at night; he still sees the goodness of God in the end results of her own son coming to faith, because God acts in a way which does answer her prayer, “that You might do the thing she was always asking” (1190). The difference in the religion of the two cultures is not the number of gods, but the character of the gods or God in the story. The ancient Greeks belief in gods, who are just bigger versions of man. The Christian God of the Roman world, calls people to accept the new faith, obey His commands, and be changed by the relationship with