We're back to the Iliad again...and I'm justifying reading the Iliad on the Sabbath, by also reading the scriptures. But the comparison is waking both of them up for me in such a good way.
Today's comparison between the Iliad, Book Five and the scriptures involves the story of Jacob in the Bible, who wrestles an angel.
In the last Book, Zeus tells his wife Juno that mortals are pathetic next to the gods - what could they possibly do to injure us?
But then, in this chapter, that's exactly what daring mortals do. They dare...and they don't do too badly at all against the Grecian gods in a fight.
But they're not running on their own power - they are, in fact, assisted by other gods - and humans assisted by other gods with divine power become superhuman:
But Pallas [Athena, the goddess] now Tydides’ soul inspires,
Fills with her force, and warms with all her fires,
Above the Greeks his deathless fame to raise,
And crown her hero with distinguish’d praise.
High on his helm celestial lightnings play,
His beamy shield emits a living ray;
The unwearied blaze incessant streams supplies,
Like the red star that fires the autumnal skies,
When fresh he rears his radiant orb to sight,
And, bathed in ocean, shoots a keener light.
Such glories Pallas on the chief bestow’d,
Such, from his arms, the fierce effulgence flow’d:
Onward she drives him, furious to engage,
Where the fight burns, and where the thickest rage.
The champion is given great powers, but is not allowed to fight any gods except one, and he wounds her on the hand as she is helping her son in battle.
Later on, Tydides, or Diomed, fights and wounds the god of war, Mars, as well.
The humans are, again, a pawn and a proxy for fighting between the gods. Their own wills are sublimated to the will of the gods.
Jacob Wrestling with an Angel
From the scriptures, we find a similar story in the Bible - Genesis 28.
Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, had been through many challenges in his life - his brother Esau had left the church, but blamed his brother Jacob for stealing his birthright. Jacob had, in fact, 'bought' his brother's firstborn birthright for a bowl of lentils, showing how little Esau cared for the responsibilities of his priesthood - he only wanted the prestige of it.
So Jacob went to his aged father, with his mother's help, and received the firstborn blessing instead from his father's hand.
Esau came for his blessing, and discovered that Jacob had already received it, and was determined to kill Jacob. His mother Rebekah sent Jacob away to live with her brother Laban, to preserve Jacob's life.
Many years later, Jacob returned to Canaan, sending a message of forgiveness and peace to his brother. When the messenger bearing the message returned, he told Jacob Esau was coming with four hundred men - an army.
Jacob divided his family in two groups, so that one would survive if the other did not.
And then, the wrestle began.
And Jacob was left alone;
and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
And when he [God] saw that he prevailed not against him,
he touched the hollow of his thigh;
and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
And he [God] said, Let me go, for the day breaketh.
And he [Jacob] said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
And he said unto him, What is thy name?
And he said, Jacob.
And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel:
for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name.
And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?
And he blessed him there.
And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel [meaning 'the face of God']:
for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.
Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank,
which is upon the hollow of the thigh,
unto this day:
because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew that shrank.
Jacob was a man, wrestling with God, for a blessing he needed - the blessing of prevailing over his enemy and protecting his family.
The effort left a mark on him, that generations after him would remember. Jacob's name was also, through this encounter with the Lord, changed to Israel, meaning 'he who prevails with God'.
It was a blessing that God also wanted, and so it was granted through the Abrahamic covenant. Esau and Jacob were reunited in love again, both having prospered in their absence from each other.
This idea of a covenant (an agreement between God and man) is also different from the gods that the Greeks wrote about. The Greeks showed their devotions to the gods, made sacrifices, prayed to them for favors...but they didn't know what the gods wanted and made no agreements with them.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob made covenants, or two-way agreements, with His followers, and they knew better what He expected of them, and how to approach for what they needed. There was more confidence there in approaching God, and less subject to the vagaries of the arbitrary Divine will of the Greek gods.
