Extract

Theodicy is the effort to explain (a) phenomena appearing to demonstrate a divinity's hostility to virtuous people or to people whose actions suggest that they should expect to be recipients of divine favour, or (b), more generally, reasons for divine anger with humanity.Theodical explanations are well attested in Egyptian and Mesopotamian literature, and they form the basis for significant portions of the Hebrew Bible. Theodicy is particularly important in societies that view divine forces as guarantors of good.*Hesiod is the most important early source for Greek theodicies. The story of *Pandora, which explains the existence of evil in the world as a response to *Prometheus' deceit, is one such, another the story that *Zeus decided to destroy the human race as a result of its *hubris (Hes.Op.47–105; Eoiae fr. 204 M–W). Early Greek elegy contains other examples in, for instance, Solon's poem on the subject of Dikē (fr. 13 West). The notion that a good person can be punished for the evil of an ancestor or ancestors is brought out perhaps most clearly in the Delphic explanation (see delphic oracle) of the fall of *Croesus, who is told explicitly that his misfortune is the consequence of the crime of *Gyges (Hdt.