Man and the Divine
Man and the divine have interacted in various ways for thousands of years. Over the course over the time period of The Odyssey by Homer (written in 8th century B.C.), The City of God by Augustine of Hippo (written in 426 AD), and Inferno from the epic poem Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (written in the 14th century), major differences have taken hold. The relationship between man and divine became less physical. The relationship became less about pleasing the gods to receive material advantages and more about reflection and consideration of the afterlife.
The Ancient Greeks were a race of extremely religious individuals who firmly believed in their divine beings and goddesses. Not exclusively did they accept that they lived within the sight of their divine beings, they trusted that the divine beings regularly mediated in their daily lives. The gods play large roles in The Odyssey, where one can find this relationship of Athena and Telemachus, the son of Odysseus. If it wasn’t for her direction, Telemachus wouldn’t have developed as the epic advances, taking in his obligations as a ruler and winding up more confident. He eventually assumes responsibility, stepping up with regards to discover his dad and defying the suitors (Homer I, 220-258). Athena's direction is first noticed when she visits Ithaca, counseling him under the camouflage of being an outsider. She hints to him, saying, "If I were you, I should take steps to make these men disperse" (Homer I, 318-319) clearly suggesting that Odysseus is still out there and Telemachus should come to his aid. Another case of the gods helping man is through the connection between Athena and Penelope. The goddess thinks highly of Odysseus' spouse and now and then calms her dejection by helping her rest. "The rose Dawn might have found them weeping still had not grey-eyed Athena slowed the night" (Book XXIII. 271-272). Athena helped mortals on various events in The Odyssey, showing a case of the connection between the Greeks and Gods where man was positively influenced. Another sort of relationship is where the gods would punish man for specific things. Odysseus and Poseidon’s relationship was certainly not a good one. Poseidon despises Odysseus since he blinded the god's child, Polyphemus with a spear, so as to escape from the man-eating Cyclops’ captivity (Homer XI, 365-426). The angry god of the ocean always tries to hinder Odysseus' endeavors at returning to home in any way imaginable. Odysseus gets punished after disobeying the god’s wishes. His crew were told not to butcher Helios’ cows by Tiresias, as he says " If you raid the beeves, I see destruction for ship and crew " (12. 166-167). In any case, the group disregards him and murders some cows for nourishment, and shortly after, the crew ends up crashing at sea.
The City of God was written shortly after the fall of Rome, where a transition in ideologies and beliefs has began to occur. In book I, Augustine addresses the non-Christians and pagans, who believed that Rome fell in light of the fact that the Christianity had deteriorated it. In book IV, Augustine proposes a different stance: Rome only survived as long as it did because God allowed it to. From book VI onward to book X, Augustine shifts center and dedicates the following five books to disproving the individuals who said man must love the prior deities to achieve everlasting life. Augustine writes, “Though good and bad men suffer alike, we must not suppose that there is no difference between the men themselves, because there is no difference in what they both suffer. For even in the likeness of the sufferings, there remains an unlikeness in the sufferers; and though exposed to the same anguish, virtue and vice are not the same thing. For as the same fire causes gold to glow brightly, and chaff to smoke; and under the same flail the straw is beaten small, while the grain is cleansed; and as the lees are not mixed with the oil, though squeezed out of the vat by the same pressure, so the same violence of affliction proves, purges, clarifies the good, but damns, ruins, exterminates the wicked” (Augustine, XIV). This very clearly states how virtuosity and character impact the relationship between man and God and hints at the wretched afterlife one would live in if they don’t lead an altruistic lifestyle. Once again Augustine addresses how one should live with God in mind, stating, “The bodies of irrational animals are bent toward the ground, whereas man was made to walk erect with his eyes on heaven, as though to remind him to keep his thoughts on things above” (Augustine, XIV). Looking up to God instead of searching for solace in materialistic things was stressed by this quote and is still a major virtue of Christianity today.
Dante’s Inferno highlighted new relationships between man and divine by describing Dante’s journey through the several rings of Hell. Afterlife was of major importance in Christianity at this time, with the ideas of Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell becoming deeply entrenched. Dante begins, saying, “When I had journeyed half of our life’s way, I found myself within a shadowed forest, for I had lost the path that does not stray. Ah, it is hard to speak of what it was, that savage forest, dense and difficult, which even in recall renews my fear: so bitter – death is hardly more severe! But to retell the good discovered there, I’ll also tell the other things I saw. I cannot clearly say how I had entered the wood; I was so full of sleep just at the point where I abandoned the true path” (Alighieri I, 1-12). From these very first lines, one can see that the idea of transgression or forsaking God true path is dangerous in the sense that that lifestyle is "shadowed," "savage," "difficult." As the path is cloudy and dark, it inhibits Dante's vision, metaphorically and literally, making it troublesome for him to see the difference between good and evil. Dante has just been deceived into his current situation since he cannot remember how he entered the forest in the first place. Sin is what just made Dante so exhausted that he can't recall when he strayed off the straight street to God. Dante, after his lover Beatrice defended him from scrutiny for straying from God, says, “As little flowers, which the chill of night has bent and huddled, when the white sun strikes, grow straight and open fully on their stems, so did I, too, with my exhausted force; and such warm daring rushed into my heart that I – as one who has been freed – began: ‘O she, compassionate, who has helped me! And you who, courteous, obeyed so quickly the true words that she had addressed to you! You, with your words, have so disposed my heart to longing for this journey – I return to what I was at first prepared to do.’" (Alighiery II, 127-138) Dante's reaction to Beatrice's scrutiny prompts him to sprout out much like a plant. Thus, Beatrice's empathy is tied to the light of God. Since his vision is restored with her light, Dante feels the power of spirituality, answering the questions that were tormenting him previously. This shows how sympathy appears to have a nurturing power that Dante will use later to uplift sinners.
To put it simply, a lot has changed between man’s relationship with the divine, but the changes were certainly not simple. Over the course of the three sources, the changes transitioned from man and divine living amongst each other and the use of the divine to help one’s personal needs, to a very spiritual, inward-reflecting, God fearing relationship. The relationship became less physical and more philosophical and altruistic.