The scholarly tendency has too often weakened the conspicuous novelty and originality that
characterizes Zeus in the Iliad. This book remedies that tendency and depicts the extraordinary
figure of Zeus: lord (or impersonation) of lightning and thunders exclusive master of human
destiny --and therefore of human history-and chief of Olympus. This unique personality endowed
with polyvalent powers represents itself the conflict between superhuman moral indifference for
mortal destiny and anthropomorphic feelings for human beings: he both preordains the death of
his son and weeps on his demise. Zeus embodies the Mysterium tremendum. This new Zeus cannot
glance at the past image that the tradition painted of him without smiling at its simplicity
and disrespect: a parodic or amusing tone surrounds him as he refers or is referred to aspects
of his traditional image. The great characters of the Poem give two wise responses to Zeus
lord of destiny: heroic death or serene acceptance. We the readers are expected to react in
the same way.
