Along with politics, religion is something that everyone associates as a pillar of ancient Greek culture. The gods played a huge role in the daily lives of the Greeks. Although the fantastic gods of ancient Greece do not exist, the impact the gods had on the Greeks was real. One of the best ways to see how the Greeks understood the role of the gods is to read stories or plays from Greek culture. Reading this popular culture of the Greeks we understand that the role of the gods was not always the same for everyone. Homer's version of the Iliad portrays deities who have human characteristics, enormous moral influence, and take physical actions to change the course of events in the tale. In the Iliad, the god Apollo literally flashes. But when he returned for the fourth time, like a spirit from beyond, Apollo's voice split the daylight in two: "Return, Patroclus, return to your place." Troy is destined to fall, but not for you, still more for Achilles, a far better man.'” (Iliad pg. 96) The passage shows how real the gods were to some Greeks. The gods were powerful, forceful, and able to act for or against any mere mortal. The flip side of the gods is the idea that they have moral influence. A constant observer and a reminder to the Greeks: be upright and moral. This journey of faith played a vital role in shaping the plot of Sophocles' Antigone. The character of Antigone bases many of her actions on the belief that the ancient laws of the gods are more important than the laws of man. Antigone makes this bold statement while arguing with Creon: She says, “These laws were made neither today nor yesterday. They live forever and now we know when they were born. No man could scare me into accepting the god's punishment for breaking such a law. (Antigone page 21). Nearly all Greeks believed that religion was important, but this common belief manifested itself in different ways, from the arrogance of Achilles and Agamemnon in the Iliad, to the blatant example of arrogance provided by Xerxes in Herodotus' account of the Persian War. The word the Greeks used for arrogance was arrogance. Arrogance embodied much more than just arrogance. Time and again, characters infected with arrogance have acted in defiance of the gods. For the Greeks, arrogance was becoming so full of pride and arrogance that you think of yourself as your god. Any person infected with arrogance fell... and fell hard. Arrogance is something that all Greeks hated in a person, and it was often portrayed in characters through plays or stories. Herodotus made it very clear in the Histories that the Persian king Xerxes was infected with arrogance. Below is a particularly extravagant display of hubris by King Xerxes after the decimation of his bridge. “Xerxes became very angry and ordered the Hellespont to receive three hundred lashes and a couple of chains to be thrown into the water.” (Xerxes' invasion of Greece page 129). Herodotus made it very clear from Xerxes' actions that arrogance had infected his thinking. Not only did arrogance drive him to give irrational commands, but the Persians also lost the war. The Persian defeat against Greece fulfilled Artabanus' words to Xerxes: “See how the god hurls his thunderbolts at the disproportionate beast and stops its course?