asher.p3.t6 Greek/Roman era synthesis question

Poem: Strange that the Godless Prosper, by Sophocles

Strange is it that the godless, who have sprung

From evil-doers, should fare prosperously,

While good men, born of noble stock, should be

By adverse fortune vexed. It was ill done

For the gods thus to order lives of men.

What ought to be is this, that godly souls

Should from the gods gain some clear recompense

And the unjust pay some clear penalty;

So none would prosper who are base of soul.

This poem addresses many of the issues that Greek society struggled to understand and master. Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle spent a great deal of their time discussing the ideas of morality and ethics, and how such traits play a part in society and daily lives. In this poem, Sophocles not only discusses morality, in his poem referred to as “godlessness”, he intertwines his thoughts on morality with religion. He poses a question that was looming in Greek society when he wrote the poem: If religion is just and absolute, why is it that moral humans be vexed “by adverse fortune” ? This was written at a time when science was developing as a counterpoint to traditional religion, and as religion began to come under question in a more direct way than ever before, citizens and thinkers presented inconsistencies and confusions regarding religion. Sophocles is posing a question that philosophers of the time must have struggled to explain. This literary work is an embodiment of a piece of a very large issue that people in the Greek & Roman era faced, and that is the clash between reason and religion.