World Litertur Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

World Litertur - Essay Example Juno has sent me, who cares for both of you alike. Cease, then, this brawling, and do not draw your sword†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Iliad, Book 1). This same interaction with humans could be observed throughout the Odyssey as well. In book 1, we see Minerva disguising herself as Anchialus to give counsel to Ulysses’ son, Telemachus. She did so to give him the courage to wait for his father since his father is still alive. The gods are directly involved with humans, not only to aid them or to answer their prayers or to protect them, but even to take advantage of them, or to be their parents. Achilles has a nymph for a mother, present in The Iliad. The relation of the gods to the humans simulates almost the social interaction that humans have with each other, except that, because of the gods’ supernatural capacities, this interaction with the gods becomes richer (in a sense, becomes more â€Å"supernatural†). The interaction is richer in the sense that the interaction produce s results that may not necessarily happen when humans merely interact with each other. Probably, no human interaction could ever produce an Achilles for example. Poseidon’s hatred of Odysseus brought him everywhere leading to an adventure that no mere mortal of lesser status than Ulysses could ever have or handle. In Dr. Faustus, we have a much weaker protagonist—Faustus certainly does not command the respect of an Achilles or an Odysseus, but he is still god-like. Granted, all characters have their tragic flaws, but Faustus is difficult to like, and this factor makes it easier for the audience to watch him sell his soul to the devil. To reach his goal Faustus, ‘swollen with cunning of a self-conceit’ does not hesitate to sell his soul to Mephistopheles for twenty-four years of supernatural powers. After rejecting all subjects as unworthy of achieving immortal fame, he becomes romantically obsessed with ‘metaphysics of the magicians’ and hastily concludes: ‘A sound magician