Extravagant destruction by gods on the battlefield is not an unusual theme in religious texts. Across the spectrum of world religions, such destruction is cast in many guises – protective, punitive, inspiring, even illustrative of divine play. The Iliad has its share of these guises. The protective guise might be seen when Athene wards off missiles from Menelaos on the battlefield as a mother swats flies from her sleeping babe (4.128–31); a punishing guise is evident when Zeus, Poseidon, and Apollo storm the Achaian wall with crashing waves after the war, because the Achaians built it without divine permission (12.8–36); it is specifically to inspire the Achaians that Athene enters into the throng of warriors so that she might be seen (4.515–16); and, as for play, Zeus laughs in his heart with joy when he sees the gods coming together in strife on the battlefield (21.389–91). In this chapter, I will trace out some guises for battlefield the ophanies in the Iliad, exploring their apparent effects on the humans who witness them and concluding with an examination of cosmic destruction represented as a response to oath-violation. Such images in the Iliad will be set against similar Hittite, Assyrian, and biblical images, which will help to demonstrate some cross-Mediterranean poetic patterns for the expression of divine power on the battlefield.