“The storms were a natural sign that something was up with the gods.”

I like this student’s phrasing. Unlike today’s wild-eyed preachers who see punishment for the sin of their choice in every natural disaster, my student is willing to consider that “something” may merely be “up.”

If “Zeus was the god of the right thing to do,” was he chiefly responsible for the preachers’ kinds of storms, punishing humans for doing the wrong thing? (Actually the student who wrote that one  was trying to remember the word “hospitality,” which was the expected answer on the quiz that produced this reply. I would have thought etiquette meant “the right thing to do,” but still this was a nice try. I probably gave at least partial credit.)

Anyway, as we await Irene, we might think about what might be up with the Greek goddess of peace, who shares her name.