The relationship of the human to the divine in Greek, Hebrew, and Roman cultures

Human & Divine

The Relationship between the Human and the Divine in Greek, Hebrew and Roman Cultures

In modern western society, the human and the divine may appear starkly separated as people profess suspicion and disbelief in supernatural phenomena. However, the concept of divine illumination drives Christianity and is at the core of the cultural beliefs in many western societies, even if people profess an active disbelief in supernatural phenomena. In many ancient cultures there was a more complicated relationship between the human and the divine. This doctrine is referred to as divine illumination. The doctrine of divine illumination "holds that human beings require a special divine assistance in their ordinary cognitive activities" (Pasnau).

Furthermore, some of the cultures believed in the intermingling of the gods with humans. Not only did the gods interact in the lives of humans, but they also fathered children by humans. Therefore, humanity could only be understood as a relative concept, "relative to the sub-human (animal) and the super-human (divine)" (Flint-Hamilton). In fact, in some societies, there was practically no separation between the concept of human and divine.

For example, "n their various legends, stories and hymns the gods of ancient Greece are all described as human in appearance: the few chimerical beings such as the Sphinx all have Near Eastern or Anatolian origins" ("Greek Mythology"). However, despite their human appearances, the Greeks gods are ageless, generally immune to wounds and sickness, and possess a variety of supernatural powers.

Furthermore, the entire concept of the Greek hero is based upon the relationship between the divine and the human. The heroes of Greece were those people who were fathered by the gods and were half-human, half-god. The concept of the hero was interesting, because heroes possessed powers that regular human beings did not have, yet they also possessed frailties that the Gods lacked.

The fact that the Greeks viewed their heroes as demi-gods illuminates the idea that the Greeks believed in their mythology. To the ancient Greeks, mythology was history. "The Greeks used myth to explain natural phenomena, cultural variations, traditional enmities, and friendships" ("Greek Mythology"). It was only when Greek was under the influence of the Roman Empire that the Greek belief in mythology as history began to unravel.

The main difference between the ancient Greek and the ancient Roman approach to the interrelationship between the human and the divine centered around the differing approaches to religion. Ancient Greek mythology contained many narratives surrounding the activities of the gods and goddesses. In contrast, "archaic Roman 'mythology', at least concerning the gods, was made up not of narratives, but rather of interlocking and complex interrelations between and among gods and humans" ("Roman Mythology").

The similarity is that archaic Roman mythology consisted of several gods with specific functions, much like Greek mythology. These gods would be invoked by the early Romans as they performed specific tasks. Therefore, even the archaic Romans manifested a belief that the gods interacted with them in their daily lives.

Even more interesting is the idea that when the Romans conquered a people, they "commonly granted the local gods of the conquered territory the same honors as the earlier gods who had been regarded as peculiar to the Roman state" ("Roman Mythology"). "The important Roman deities were eventually identified with the more anthropomorphic Greek gods and goddesses, whose attributes and myths were also taken over" ("Mythology." Therefore, relationship between the human and the divine in ancient Rome began to approach the relationship between the human and the divine in ancient Greece.

The story of the hero Hercules in Rome, Heracles in Greece, illuminates the relationship between the divine and the human. Hercules was the son of the god Jupiter (Zeus) and a human. Jupiter's wife was jealous of Hercules and attempted to kill him, drove him insane, caused him to kill his wife, and set about sending him on to complete twelve tasks, which would have been impossible for a regular human. He completed the tasks. When Hercules was dying, he was placed upon a funeral pyre, where he "ascended to Olympus, where he was granted immortality and lived among the gods" (Ellingson).

The Hebrew culture approaches the question of the interrelationship of the human and the divine in a manner substantially different than the Greek or Roman cultures. In fact, there are substantial differences in the Greek and Hebrew schools of thought, even down to descriptions of objects. For example, "the Greek culture describes objects in relation to the object itself. The Hebrew culture describes objects in relation to the Hebrew himself" ("Hebrew Thought"). Therefore, any Hebrew description of the divine automatically reflects the interrelationship between the divine and the human.