as the battle of carnage. Ares fights for the fight, and he makes other lose control in battle. This is different from Athena, who is the Goddess of civilized, just battle. When Greek soldiers became uncontrollable in combat, he would claim that Areas took control of him . Throughout the Iliad, the Gods are the driving force of the battle. Diomedes says that Achilles will only fight when whenever the time comes/ that the heart in his body urges him to and the god drives him (Iliad, book 9, lines 702-703). This says that Achilles will fight when the some god or goddess makes him. In the realms of Greek myth, a sudden change of heart or mind was explained that the Gods are responsible. This is not unlike someone today saying the devil made me do it!. This is used to explain some unexplained action, or an act out of character for a hero. The gods prove not only to be outside forces, but humanities inner drives. Lust for battle from Areas, lust for love from Aphrodite, spontaneous wisdom from Athena. These are all things that happen to people, times when the rational mind does not seem to have any control over ones actions. The Gods provide an explanation for them, as well as an excuse. A second type of psychological interaction is when the Gods offer some sort of counseling to a hero or other mortal. Athena does this quite often, as the Goddess of wisdom. The Gods do not always help the heroes in this type of interactions though. The best example of this is when Zeus sends a false dream to Agamemnon, in which he tells the leader it is time for the Acheans to try and take Troy. This proves to be a disaster, and the Greeks truly regret it. The reason Zeus does this is because he wants to keep his promise to Thetis, mother of Achilles, to make sure the Greeks regret not having Achilles fight with them . The Gods provide a way for a hero to think that his wishes are going to be fulfilled. Unfortunately, this turns out not to be true. The s...
