Justice In The Odyssey

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In many ways, the Greek god's’ constant presence in tn many texts of work underline how often people look up to them. Even if the gods themselves did not play quite an active role in the specific myth, they were still referenced to and revered for the power which they possessed. Often times, many resolutions were made by the words of the gods. As all powerful beings, many would assume that they must have held the answers to settle many disputes among the humans. However, while the gods have done many good for the humans, the justice that they have to the humans was not great or divine as many have thought to be. The unfortunate fact was that many of the conflicts was caused, in many ways by the gods, so attributing by the humans might have …show more content…
In one of Euripides plays, Hippolytus, son of Theseus, learned this the hard way when he insulted Aphrodite when he rejected the power of love as he prefer to remain unmarried and continue to chase Artemis (Line 113). To Aphrodite where her powers came from the love and sexual erotism, having him swore her off was the greatest insult he could ever done. And so, because love was one of the main attributes which was associated with her, his punishment came when Aphrodite cursed another person to be in love with him. Aphrodite proceed to took control of the Phaedra, Hippolytus’ stepmother, and made her feel deep in love with him. The madness was so much that she begged to be brought back to the mountains and hunt with Artemis and swore off her affection for him (Line 215-220). With the grief too much-committed suicide, but before she died she left a note which stated she was too ashamed to live once Hippolytus raped her. This was brought to the attention of Theseus and how to punished his own son for the alleged rape of his wife. His resolution was to tied the hands and feet of Hippolytus together and pulled by horses until he died. Here, while the goddess Aphrodite did not went down into the human world herself like Apollo did, her act to cause both of the death of Hippolytus and Phaedra demonstrated the fearsome powers which she can …show more content…
Once Theseus found out the truth, he begged to be punished but Hippolytus forgave him, and thus ending cycle of violence within the household (Line 1300-1430). This part nicely ended the story, but many would say that not all of the gods act on their own self-interest, but that there was true justice being served to the everyone. But Artemis also had something of a steak in this matter. As stated before, the gods received their powers was through honors and respect they have gain though their followers. In this moment, losing Hippolytus to Aphrodite's wrath would showed that Artemis was not powerful enough to protect her followers. So like Apollo, bring justice for the one that have been wrongly mistreated would meant bring justice to herself. So now, all maidens going into marriage with prey to Hippolytus to remind them the harshness of the word to those who do not want to pressure into transitioning to marriage. Additionally, she promised to seek revenge on Aphrodite herself so that none of her other followers would suffer like Hippolytus did (Line
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