Love, Sex, and the Gods in World Literature

Love, Sex, and the Gods in World Literature Literature throughout world history contains many of the same themes and motifs. The works that will be discussed in this paper: Homer’s The Iliad, Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, and Ovid’s Metamophoses, all contain common themes. The first theme is love, whether it is the love between a man and a woman, parent and child, or the love of siblings. Love is a driving force for many of the characters in these works. The second theme is sex, whether it is symbolic or literal, forceful or complaisant. Sex is not always the main theme of a story, but the sexual overtures are dominant in many of these works. Finally this paper will discuss the intervention of the gods. The gods play a major role in world literature. Sometimes a character acts in a certain way so the gods will not be upset. Other times, the gods intervene personally to alter the way life is lived by the mortals. This paper will discuss how love, sex, and the gods are the driving forces of many of the characters in the works of historical literature. In Homer’s The Iliad, the gods are the motivation of many of the characters. In fact, the gods play major roles in The Iliad. The gods speak to the mortals, they watch over them, and they even fight alongside them. The gods favor certain sides and certain warriors involved in the Trojan War. For instance:
“Aphrodite… was on the side of Paris. Equally… Hera and Athena were against him. Ares, God of War, always took sides with Aphrodite; while Poseidon, Lord of the Sea, favored the Greeks, a sea people, always great sailors. Apollo cared for Hector and for his sake helped the Trojans, and Artemis, as his sister, did so too. Zeus like the Trojans best… “ (Hamilton 81)
The gods went out of their way to fight for and support the mortals they favored. The first intervention of the gods comes in the subplot of Chryseis. Chryseis was the daughter of Apollo’s priest. Agamemnon had taken her as a prize of war.

Cited: Hamilton, Edith. The Story of the Iliad. Readings on Homer. Greenhaven Press. 1998 Lawall, Sarah and Maynard Mack 7th ed. W. W. Norton and Company, Inc. 1999 Metzger, Sherri E White, Mark. Critical Essay on “Metamorphoses”. Poetry for Students, Vol. 22, Thompson Gale, 2005.