Book contents
- Humans and Gods in Sophocles and Early Greek Thought
- Humans and Gods in Sophocles and Early Greek Thought
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Humans and Gods in Early Greek Thought
- Chapter 2 Sophocles the Ironist
- Chapter 3 Trachiniae
- Chapter 4 Antigone
- Chapter 5 Electra
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- Subject Index
Chapter 1 - Humans and Gods in Early Greek Thought
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 May 2026
Book contents
- Humans and Gods in Sophocles and Early Greek Thought
- Humans and Gods in Sophocles and Early Greek Thought
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Humans and Gods in Early Greek Thought
- Chapter 2 Sophocles the Ironist
- Chapter 3 Trachiniae
- Chapter 4 Antigone
- Chapter 5 Electra
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- Subject Index
Summary
This chapter offers an interpretation of early Greek conceptions of divine and human as a coherent constellation of ideas organised around the core notions of human vulnerability, short-sightedness and mutability. Beginning with Achilles’ speech to Priam in Iliad 24, I discuss these key principles and their expressions in genres including epic, elegy, choral lyric, philosophy and historiography. I analyse some of their specific formulations and inflections, with a particular focus on perceptions of the unpredictable and unstable nature of human affairs, the conception of human beings as ephēmeroi (‘creatures of the day’), ideas of divine retribution and the ‘archaic chain’ linking prosperity, greed, arrogance, delusion and disaster. In a second step, I examine the relationship between these ideas and the narratives in which they are embedded, mainly using the examples of the Iliad and Solon’s Elegy to the Muses (fr. 13W).
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- Humans and Gods in Sophocles and Early Greek ThoughtTheology, Epistemology and Narrative, pp. 13 - 46Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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