The Socratic Journey of Faith and Reason

“My mother Thetis tells me that there are two ways in which I may meet my end. If I stay and fight, I shall not return alive, but my name will live forever; whereas if I go home my name will die, but it will be long ere death shall take me.”₁

-The Iliad, Achilles talking to Odysseus

Homer’s mythology, like much mythology of the ancient world, was an attempt to explain reality through the interaction between the gods and between the gods and men. But unlike other mythologies, say, of the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians, Homer takes a less superstitious approach. Rather, his mythology is more human than divine – his gods are all too human, complete with human weaknesses and shortcomings.₂ Also, his gods have less control since they, too are subject to fate just like humans. With Homer, we see the cosmological myth is starting to fade. For even thought The Iliad is full of gods, Homer presents a more psychological rather than cosmological explanation of things. As E. Michael Jones states in Logos Rising, “There is nothing divine about the gods of The Iliad.”₃ In this respect, with Homer, we start to see the beginning of the transition from myth to metaphysics.₄