Although both stories are credited to Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey portray two very different outlooks on how the Greek Gods interacted with humankind. It is evident that Homer believes that gods have the ability to control the way man's existence will go through. However, the way in which the gods interact with man differ in the to epics. The gods never treat the humans in one manner either compassionately or cruelly, but they do act with their own interests usually in mind. The Iliad takes Homer's point of view that humans are nothing more then puppets to Zeus and the rest of the gods, while the Odyssey shows that humans control whether the bring misfortune or good to themselves.
             Within his two works, Homer incorporates the consistently evident belief that he gods are always concerned with the activities of human life. In the Iliad, the gods don't do anything extremely supernatural or all powerful. They are more or less characters that persuade and tell the humans what to do. The gods persuade the humans to do deeds which are usually in the god's own interests. At the start of book two, Zeus sends Agamemnon a dream telling him to rally the Achaeans, but this dream is sent only because Zeus wishes to help the Trojans out (Homer, Iliad book 2, lines 5-20). When the men are running to the ships as a result of Agamemnon's suggestion, Hera has Athena convince Odysseus to stop them because it is in her interest for the war to proceed.
             The gods in the Iliad play a dramatic part that move the war into motion during certain times. In book three, there is a duel between Paris and Menelaus. I f Paris won the fight the war would end, and if Menelaus won, he would get Helen back. Aphrodite takes Paris away from the duel against Menelaus and brings Helen together with him (Homer, Iliad 3, 417-421). This causes the gods to fight with each other because Zeus believed that Menelaus lost the duel and t...