Homér: Quotes about God

Homér is Ancient Greek epic poet, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Explore interesting quotes on god.
Homér: 434 quotes72 likes

“Men are so quick to blame the gods: they say
that we devise their misery. But they
themselves- in their depravity- design
grief greater than the griefs that fate assigns.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

Source: The Odyssey

“Is he not sacred, even to the gods, the wandering man who comes in weariness?”

Homér Iliad

Source: The Iliad

“Just take in peace what gifts the gods will send.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XVIII. 142 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“And gods in guise of strangers from afar in every form do roam our cities, marking the sin and righteousness of men.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XVII. 485–487 (tr. G. H. Palmer).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“If only strife could die from the lives of gods and men”

Homér Iliad

XVIII. 107–110 (tr. Robert Fagles); spoken by Achilles.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)
Context: If only strife could die from the lives of gods and men
and anger that drives the sanest man to flare in outrage—
bitter gall, sweeter than dripping streams of honey,
that swarms in people's chests and blinds like smoke.

“Yet do not bring up against me the sweet favours of golden Aphrodite.
Never to be cast away are the gifts of the gods, magnificent,
which they give of their own will, no man could have them for wanting them.”

Homér Iliad

III. 64–66 (tr. Richmond Lattimore).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“Ah how shameless – the way these mortals blame the gods. From us alone they say come all their miseries yes but they themselves with their own reckless ways compound their pains beyond their proper share.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

Source: The Odyssey

“some things you will think of yourself,… some things God will put into your mind”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

Source: The Odyssey

“Yea, and if some god shall wreck me in the wine-dark deep,
even so I will endure…
For already have I suffered full much,
and much have I toiled in perils of waves and war.
Let this be added to the tale of those.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

Source: The Odyssey

“Think not to match yourself against gods, for men that walk the earth cannot hold their own with the immortals.”

Homér Iliad

V. 440–442 (tr. Samuel Butler).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“Let us put our griefs to rest in our own hearts…
What good's to be won from tears that chill the spirit?
So the immortals spun our lives that we, we wretched men
live on to bear such torments—the gods live free of sorrows.”

Homér Iliad

XXIV. 522–526 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“If any man obeys the gods, they listen to him also.”

Homér Iliad

I. 218 (tr. Richmond Lattimore).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“Behold on wrong
Swift vengeance waits; and art subdues the strong!
Dwells there a god on all the Olympian brow
More swift than Mars, and more than Vulcan slow?
Yet Vulcan conquers, and the god of arms
Must pay the penalty for lawless charms.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

VIII. 329–331 (tr. Alexander Pope).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“Both gods knotted the rope of strife and leveling war,
strangling both sides at once by stretching the mighty cable,
never broken, never slipped, that snapped the knees of thousands.”

Homér Iliad

XIII. 358–360 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“No man who fights with gods will live long or hear his children prattling about his knees when he returns from battle.”

Homér Iliad

V. 407–409 (tr. Samuel Butler).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“And uncontrollable laughter broke from the happy gods
as they watched the god of fire breathing hard
and bustling through the halls.”

Homér Iliad

I. 599–600 (tr. Robert Fagles); hence the expression "Homeric laughter".
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“It is the god who accomplishes all things.”

Homér Iliad

XIX. 90 (tr. R. Lattimore).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“But the gods give to mortals not everything at the same time.”

Homér Iliad

IV. 320 (tr. R. Lattimore).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“Now sure enough the vile man leads the vile!
As ever, god brings like and like together!”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XVII. 217–218 (tr. G. H. Palmer).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“See now, how men lay blame upon us gods for what is after all nothing but their own folly.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

I. 32–34 (tr. Samuel Butler).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)