Zeus And Odin Essay Research Paper Zeus free essay sample

Zeus And Odin Essay, Research Paper Zeus and Odin Zeus is the swayer of the Grecian Gods. He is the boy of Cronos and Rhea, in fact the lone boy of these two to last to adulthood. Zeus had been hidden by Rhea so that Cronos would non get down him like he had all of his other progeny ; he had been warned that one of his kids would finally overthrow him. Rhea sent Zeus to the island of Crete where he was raised. Zeus finally killed his male parent. After he killed Cronos, he restored life to his brothers and sisters. He so drew tonss with his brothers Poseidon and Plutos to see who would go swayer of the assorted parts of the existence. Zeus won the draw and became the supreme swayer of the Gods. He is Godhead of the sky, the rain God. His arm is a bolt of lightning, made for him by the Cyclopes under the way of Hephaestus, which he hurls at those who displease him. He married a sequence of partners with whom he had many kids including: Athene, The Fates, Ares, Apollo, Artemis, and Hermes. His last, and most well-known married woman is Hera but he is celebrated for his many personal businesss. Odin is the leader of the Norse Gods and has a myriad of names including Allfather, Ygg, Bolverk ( evil actor ) , and Grimnir. He besides has many maps within the myths including being a God of war, poesy, wisdom, and decease. However, he is non considered the chief God of each of these maps. Odin # 8217 ; s symbol is his charming lance named Grungir which neer misses its grade. He besides owns a charming ring called Draupnir which can make nine of itself every dark. It was this ring that Odin laid on his boy Balder # 8217 ; s funeral pyre and which Balder returned to Odin from the underworld. Odin besides has two wolves, Geri and Freki, and two Corvus coraxs, Hugin ( thought ) and Munin ( memory ) . He sends his Corvus coraxs out every twenty-four hours to garner cognition for him. Odin was destined to decease at Ragnarok ; Fenris-Wolf swallowed him. Knowing his destiny, he still chose to encompass it and make conflict, demoing the true warrior moral principle. He is the God of warriors and male monarchs, non the common adult male. Among his kids are: Thor, Hermod, and Balder. He is married to Frigg, the goddess of matrimony. The first obvious similarity between Zeus and Odin is in their visual aspect. Both are really big work forces, but they are non depicted as fat work forces. Both look really powerful and predicting. They besides are both shown as holding face funguss. A face fungus represents manfulness, in a really basic manner as facial hair is something that every adult male can hold. In this sense the face fungus as a signature characteristic of these Gods brings in a sense of fond regard to the people within the societies that worshipped them. If they had a different signature characteristic, for illustration wings, this would take the Gods from the common adult male. The face fungus is something ordinary people can associate to. It may besides be of note that the stereotyped position of Vikings and Norsemen about ever includes face funguss on the work forces. Possibly they were seeking to emulate their caput God or possibly the God was created in the image of the ordinary adult male. Here is the direct comparing. Zeus and Odin were several swayers over the Gods in their mythologies. Zeus was known for continuing the jurisprudence and societal order. In fact, one of his rubrics was Zeus Horkios which literally means the Guarantor of Curses. This is rather similar ot Odin # 8217 ; s recording of all the Torahs, contracts and understandings onto his lance which he was bound to continue. They both had their castles in the sky to some extent. Mt. Olympus was really high ( in the mythologies ; the existent Mt. Olympus is a mountain, but non really high. ) It is besides of import to observe that when the three brothers ( Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades ) were make up ones minding which portion of the universe each would acquire, Zeus chose the sky. There are many narratives of Zeus looking down from Mt. Olympus into the lives of other work forces. This is besides the instance with Odin. He could watch other people, Gods and persons likewise, from his throne Hlidskialf in Asgard, Asgard being the castle in the sky where the Gods met. So there are distinguishable similarities between Asgard and Mt. Olimbos: both were in the sky, both allowed for the observation of the remainder of the universe, both were the meeting topographic point for the Gods in their several mythologies. The actions of the two Gods are really of import to look at every bit good. Zeus is well-known for traveling off into the universe of persons and seeking to hold dealingss with the persons. Often times he would alter form in order to carry through this. He took such signifiers as a bull, swan, aureate shower, and a quail, for illustration. This shape-shifting was besides a typical action of Odin. He changed himself into animate beings on occasion, such as a serpent or an bird of Jove. ( Interestingly, Zeus is frequently depicted as an bird of Jove! ) But, more frequently than non, Odin changed himself into The Wanderer. In this signifier he was known to wear a long Grey cloak and a broad brimmed chapeau that covered or cast shadows over his losing oculus. In this signifier he attempted, on many occasions, to hold dealingss, frequently engendering offspring. There is one narrative of Odin and Rind where Odin must alter his form multiple times to run into the demands of Rind who he is courting. He transforms from captain of her male parent # 8217 ; s ground forces to a Smith to a warrior and eventually is accepted into her weaponries merely after taking his natural signifier as a God. This raises one of import difference between the two: the attitudes of the two several married womans of the Gods, Hera and Frigg. Hera is well-known for her covetous and vindictive reactions to Zeus actions. However, Frigg does non hold the same reaction. To see the development of this idea, see the married womans # 8217 ; page. Another commonalty of the two Gods is their interaction with persons. In both their visiting and aiding of these persons Zeus and Odin identified certain people that they considered great and offered them their aid. This supports the theory that these mythologies, because they were functioning by and large less-advanced societies ( industrially, socially and intellectually ) , created Gods who would come down and physically interact with persons, gave the Gods a sense of tangibleness to the society. At this point could a society have been able to accept a flawless, omnipotent being, particularly one on a cosmic degree, instead than a physical degree? If a God could come to a adult male and physically aid him, that would be an inducement to believe and worship. Both of these Gods have a specific symbol of power. Zeus has his illuming bolt, and Odin has his lance. Both of these points have a slightly negative reading. Lighting is a destructive force and a lance is a arm used to kill. In our society, Gods are normally displayed to hold a really positive visible radiation environing them and a arm may look strange to us as a symbol of a God. We must besides see that the Gods both used their several arms by throwing them. Possibly this is the beginning of the ideas of a cosmic entity # 8211 ; the Gods did non hold to be physically at that place, but could project their purposes from afar. The fact that both of these symbols were destructive in one signifier or another raises a few inquiries: Were these civilizations looking for a destructive God? Were they still at a province that a crude personification of adult male was desired as a God? Were these societies looking at pandemonium and devastation as being more of import in the society than order? It may be that the fright that they invoke will hold people believing that they can be punished, and if they are punished it will non be a simple smack on the carpus, but instead a lance or lightning bolt hurled at them. So I believe that this fright was used when the myths were being originally fashioned so that one would be intimidated to believe and idolize. One last thing to be considered about these two Gods, and their manfulness, is that both of them were really fertile. They were both male parents to many progeny, therefore distributing their wonderful qualities around to other existences. What I think these societies needed was a powerful adult male, one who was warlike, strong, big, intimidating and prolific. This was they type of God that one in those times could fear and esteem, and hence worship reasonably easy.