The Homeric worldview, as grand as it sounds, was basically like living in a mythological-themed soap opera; where gods had more say in your love life than your own free will ever did. This was ancient Greece’s version of “The Real Housewives,” but with more chariots and spears.
P.S. Someone should film this TV show…”The Real Housewives of Ancient Greece.” Would be a great series.
In the world of The Iliad and The Odyssey, humans were at the mercy of fate, the whims of gods, and a social structure that didn’t give two figs about your personal goals or self-actualization. You were born into a role: a king, a soldier, a peasant—and that was that. You played your part. Honor and glory were the main currencies, but they weren’t really yours to control. Sure, you could fight valiantly in a battle or make a noble sacrifice, but the gods were always lurking in the background, ready to turn your heroic moment into their latest pet project.
Mortals didn’t exactly get to ‘find themselves’ or engage in a good old existential crisis. Everything from love to war was scripted by the divine. The gods, in fact, were less spiritual guides and more petulant toddlers with superpowers, tossing lightning bolts or turning people into animals for fun.
Zeus was basically the ultimate micromanager, interfering in every department.
So, what was life about? Well, survival for one. Making it to old age without dying gloriously in battle was a bit of a letdown in Homeric times, but hey, at least you’d lived. And if you were really lucky, you’d earn some fame that might echo in the halls of history, or more realistically, become the subject of some drunken bard’s songs around a fire.
But then, as humans like to do, we started to evolve, question, and rebel against the idea that everything is just dictated by fate or divine intervention. The Homeric worldview started to wobble. Enter philosophy. Enter existentialism. Enter self-discovery, where suddenly humans were more than the sum of their roles. We began to ask the big questions: What is the meaning of life? What’s the point of it all if Zeus is no longer pulling the strings?
Fast forward a couple millennia, and the gods have been downgraded to myth, fate is more of a concept you banter about over coffee, and free will—whether real or illusory—reigns supreme. We’re no longer stuck in roles we can’t escape (mostly). Instead, we’re all about finding meaning, creating our own paths, and embracing that sweet, sweet existential dread. Now, it’s not about whether or not you’ll die a hero, but whether or not you’ll find fulfillment, dodge burnout, or figure out what the heck you’re supposed to be doing with your life.
In the Homeric world, there was no room for asking “Who am I?” or “What’s my purpose?”—because those questions had already been answered for you by forces beyond your control. Now? We’re left to figure that out for ourselves, while reading a little Nietzsche, complaining about our jobs, and Googling the best mindfulness apps. And sure, sometimes it’d be nice if the gods were still around to give us a little nudge in the right direction, but we’ll take our modern-day freedom (and its existential crises) over living at the mercy of Mount Olympus any day.
The shift from the Homeric worldview to the modern one can be summed up in one simple phrase: we traded fate for freedom—and now we have to figure out what to do with it. Unfortunately, there’s no godly cheat sheet for that.