I meant to do this last Sunday, but just had to finish that long talk of so many references.
But now that's done, and I'm back to the Iliad, in Chapter Four now.
The Council of War on Olympus
It looks like a simple conflict - Trojans and Greeks fighting. But it's not that simple.
High above them are the gods of Olympus, looking down and deciding how they will push the war forward, or stop it.
Zeus is ready for the war to end, but his wife Juno wants her vengeance on Paris and Helen:
“Shall then, O tyrant of the ethereal reign!
My schemes, my labours, and my hopes be vain?
Have I, for this, shook Ilion with alarms,
Assembled nations, set two worlds in arms?
To spread the war, I flew from shore to shore;
The immortal coursers scarce the labour bore.
At length ripe vengeance o’er their heads impends,
But Jove himself the faithless race defends.
Loth as thou art to punish lawless lust,
Not all the gods are partial and unjust.”
The sire whose thunder shakes the cloudy skies,
Sighs from his inmost soul, and thus replies:
“Oh lasting rancour! oh insatiate hate
To Phrygia’s monarch, and the Phrygian state!
What high offence has fired the wife of Jove?
Can wretched mortals harm the powers above,
That Troy, and Troy’s whole race thou wouldst confound,
And yon fair structures level with the ground!
And thus the war continues because of the politics on Olympus. Juno and Minerva inspire an archer to shoot the first arrow and break the truce, and the two armies go at it again.
Alma 43 - God Counsels with the Nephites to End Their War with the Nephites
Similarly, in the Book of Mormon, there's a very long war between two people who are descended from one family. One group is from Nephi, the younger brother who was obedient to God, and separated from Laman and his family, who was older and generally more rebellious.
From these two brothers each grew a numerous people, who seemed almost constantly at war with each other.
In Alma 43, a group that had been affiliated with the Nephites, who were generally good and obeyed God, crossed over and joined the Lamanites. The Lamanites attacked the Nephites, intent on conquering them and submitting them to their rule.
Truthfully, most of the Lamanites were not interested in carrying on an ancient family feud, but the group of Nephites who became Lamanites, angry with their former brethren, stirred the Lamanites up to fight and to kill.
All the Nephites wanted to do was live their lives and worship the Lord according to their desires, and the Lord helped them to win the battle.
"And the work of death commenced on both sides,
but it was more dreadful on the part of the Lamanites,
for their nakedness was exposed to the heavy blows of the Nephites
with their swords and their cimeters, which brought death almost at every stroke.
While on the other hand,
there was now and then a man fell among the Nephites,
by their swords and the loss of blood,
they being shielded from the more vital parts of the body,
or the more vital parts of the body being shielded from the strokes of the Lamanites,
by their breastplates, and their armshields, and their head-plates;
and thus the Nephites did carry on the work of death among the Lamanites.
And it came to pass that the Lamanites became frightened,
because of the great destruction among them,
even until they began to flee towards the river Sidon."
In the Grecian epic, the humans don't control their fate - because the capricious Gods are always there, moving them and shaping the fight according to their own whims, and many Greeks and Trojans lose their lives as a result. They thought their fight was their own doing, but it really wasn't.
However, from Alma 43, we learn a different paradigm - that Heavenly Father gives the people their own wills to do good or evil. He doesn't stop the dissenters from going over to the Lamanites, and expressing their wickedness and rage in war, but he worked in partnership with the Nephites when they respected Him and asked Him for help.
He lets them know the plans of the Lamanites, so they can prepare to fight. They would prefer peace, but they won't allow the Lamanites to just take over and oppress them without defending themselves. The Lord allows them to fight to save their homes, their families, and their faith.
When the Lamanites attack, the Nephites are prepared, and they win the day with God's help, for which they gave thanks.
On to Chapter Five next week!
