Fate In The Odyssey Essay

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Fate is the idea of events developing outside of a person's control, usually by a supernatural power. In Greek mythology, usually, fate was decided by the Greek Gods, which meant that the decisions were out of the people's hands and it was imminent. Whether they liked it or not, their lives were out of their control. Since this was true, could you say that fate controls our lives? The idea of fate is that our lives are out of our control which means we already have a set of events destined to happen to us no matter what. In both the Iliad and the Odyssey, we can see fate play a role in the form of prophecies. Many times in many stories, especially those about ancient Greek mythology, there will be a prophecy which is the driving force and reasoning …show more content…

An oracle is a priest/priestess that gives prophecies and advice from the gods. Oracles and Prophets usually could see omens and signs of something that would soon occur. In the Odyssey, there were many omens with birds. Odysseus himself prophecies that he'll return home very soon after finding out that his wife had a dream with a bird song. Another prophecy was from Teiresias which read, "...and render ceremonious sacrifice to the lord Poseidon, one ram and one bull, and a mounter of sows, a boar pig, and make your way home again and render holy hecatombs to the immortal gods who hold the wide heaven, all of them in order. Death will come to you from the sea, in some altogether unwarlike way, and it will end you in the ebbing time of a sleek old age. Your people about you will be prosperous. All this is true that I tell you.”’ (Book 11) Teiresias tells Odysseus about his fate. Teiresais is a prophet so Odysseus trusts his judgment as he assumes it's a godsend message, it also shows how much prophecies were believed back then, there wasn’t even a questions about it. The outcome wasn’t told in the story, but it’s assumed it comes …show more content…

The only thing I do believe is destined and already set for us is our death date. This might be because I just don't want to think that my life as already set and everything is gonna happen one way. I like to think that I chose to do a certain thing and it could've turned out a certain way. I haven't read all of the Quran, but from what I understand, I can see that the moment of death is imminent and that the events of our lives might not be completely set out. Sometimes I like to think of it as timelines. Each timeline has a certain set of events, but there is an infinite amount. It goes on endlessly and in the end, you pick one, which is your life. Even if this is true, it means that there are an infinite amount of fates ready for us to make, but doesn't that make the word fate obsolete? Fate usually means one ending to a story, in this case, a life, but the way I see it is that there are an infinite amount of sets of events which could occur. This brings me to a popular theory, the Chaos theory/domino effect/butterfly effect. Each one has the same meaning of whether it's something as small as a butterfly landing on a flower, it can change the events of the world completely. This is just like a set of dominos when you push one over, the rest of them fall. It seems pretty bizarre, but when you look back at your life, you might notice small things that led you to where you are right now. While that is true, I believe that every

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