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Greek Mythology - Bible vs. Biblos

From N.S. Gill,
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Homer was the most important writer for the ancient Greeks

The Bible is sometimes called the Good Book, which is fitting since the word Bible comes from the Greek word for book, biblos. For the Greeks, the bible was Homer, particularly, The Iliad. You can find a religious world view, morals, customs, genealogy, and more in Homer. However, the Iliad and the Odyssey were not sacred texts. The Iliad biblos begins, not with the creation of the world in 6 days, but with
  • an invocation of the goddess or muse (daughters of Zeus who inspired poets, speakers, and artists),
  • followed by the story of the wrath of the great Greek hero of the Trojan War, Achilles, and his anger at the Achaean (Greek) expedition's leader,
  • Agamemnon, who, in addition to straining relations with his best man by stealing his beloved concubine, has been guilty of sacrilege.

    The opening of The Iliad

      Invocation of the goddess or muse
      Sing, O goddess,
      The wrath of Achilles
      the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures, for so were the counsels of Jove fulfilled from the day on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, first fell out with one another.
      Sacrilegious conduct of Agamemnon
      And which of the gods was it that set them on to quarrel? It was the son of Jove and Leto [Apollo]; for he was angry with the king and sent a pestilence upon the host to plague the people, because the son of Atreus had dishonoured Chryses his priest.
      (Samuel Butler translation)
    Next Page: Greek Creation Stories
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