| Literature gives readers direct insight into the feelings of people who lived throughout history, including how they felt about their religions. From Greek writers such as Aristophanes, Aeschylus and Euripides, it is clear that more religious questioning was allowed in their plays than what was allowed in Voltaire's 18th-century France. This paper explores the reasons behind this. Both societies were about equally pious in their reverence for their religions, yet the Greek writers were able to get away with much more irreverence for their religion in their stories than writers like Voltaire were in his time. This is perhaps because of how the people viewed their respective gods. The Greeks did not believe their gods were perfect, while Christians do believe this of their God. The very fact that the Greek gods make mistakes probably led to the writers making fun of them, while the Christian God commands utmost respect for His perfection. Consequences for the Greek writers were nonexistent, while Voltaire suffered many consequences for questioning the Christian beliefs of his time. When both sets of views are compared, however, many similarities emerge. Both groups of people had similar questions about the nature of evil in the world and the relationship between the divine and mankind, and approached them with satire. Studying their literature helps us to see that humans have had the same questions throughout time. Modern people can relate to these writers while also still laughing at their jokes. |
