Game of Risk

            One theme that I picked up on while reading The Iliad this time around was the influence of the gods and their interactions with the mortals and other immortals during the war. In my mind I kind of compared it to a family or group of very close friends playing a game of Risk. The gods split up and picked sides based on who they favored more, which they thought more likely to win, or personal biases.  It seems to me that the gods participated in this game of Risk simply for entertainment purposes or their competitive instincts just like a family or friend group would. In The Iliad, we can see the gods running back to the patriarch, Zeus in this case, to tattle on any cheating that they see from the other side. In addition, when the game because too real or too intense they break down and cry to their father or mother. For example, when Aphrodite gets a cut on her risk from Diomedes in book 5 she runs, crying, to her mother and complains that Diomedes was being a bully. (5.409). Something as trivial as a cut seems to demonstrate how the gods think the war, which is everything to the Greeks and Trojans, is just a game to them. The gods in their interactions with the mortals do not seem to take the war very seriously because to them it does not really matter in the end. They will go on living because they are immortal and there will be feuds that result from this war but soon it will be forgotten in their minds. It appears to be nothing more than a game of war or a game of Risk that is being put on or played for their entertainment.