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The role of fate in greek mythology
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In Greek mythology as a whole, fate does have a sizeable role in most tales. However, the definition of fate for the ancient Greeks extends from the common definition. The definition of fate that is familiar to us is anything that happens for an unknown reason and is out of our control. But in Greek mythology fate also involves divine intervention from the gods of Olympus. They are able to change outcomes and alter situations to the point where what occurs might not have happened without them. In The Odyssey, gods have a very prominent role. But you cannot just discuss fate by itself. Free will is also a factor. Free will is mankind’s ability to make decisions control the aspects of one’s life. In The Odyssey life is the individual’s responsibility.
The first thing that comes up in The Odyssey that pertains to fate is when Zeus exclaims “My word, how mortals take the gods to task! All their afflictions come from us, we hear. And what of their own failings? Greed and folly double the suffering in the lot of man.” Zeus is saying that we all as humans cause our own misery and blame the gods for it. His attitude towards the struggles of humans is that since we cause our own problems, we should fix them by ourselves too. He is admitting that the gods do not have full control over events in human life. They have a
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chance to fix the odds but it does not ensure that the outcome will happen, it just increases the chances. This is also exemplified in the epic with Odysseus’ captivity on Calypso’s island after Poseidon altered the weather and caused the shipwreck. The gods kept Odysseus on Ogygia for over ten years. This was due to the fact that Odysseus was responsible by his choice to injure Poseidon’s son Polyphemus the cyclops.
If Odysseus chose to do something differently, the gods would not have intervened and trapped him. This is a very prominent example of how fate is not necessarily out of one’s control in Greek mythology. Homer leans towards the fact that despite the gods having the ability to change things, we have a large role in our lives as well. But once Zeus lightened up and commanded Calypso to release Odysseus to go home, she tries to convince him to stay with her by offering immortality. Odysseus declined and left. The gods might have known he would never stay on the island but Odysseus still came up with the answer by
himself. After leaving Circe’s island, Odysseus and his men encounter Thrinacia which is where Helios’ cattle reside. Odysseus did not want to stop there but ended up doing so anyway. He knew that he and his men were not allowed to kill and eat the cattle and specifically warned his men. A storm kept them there for a month and eventually their provisions ran out. Some of his crew got together and chose to kill the cattle even though they were told not to. Any of the men involved ended up dying. This shows that despite the gods’ and Odysseus’ warnings, people still have free will. The gods, and in turn Odysseus, tried to change the future of the crew by being up front concerning the cattle but the crew still acted against them and ended up getting what they deserved. There were also a few instances where the gods had to intervene to ensure the best result came about. The most prominent one was Athena in the palace with Odysseus. She kept him disguised for as long as necessary and once it was time, she dropped the shroud covering Odysseus. The he and Telemakhos fought the suitors. She did not play a very active role in the battle but she did make sure that the suitors’ blows did not hit their marks or give out a fatal injury if Odysseus and Telemakhos did get hurt. In this case, if Athena was not there to oversee and eventually jump in the fight, Odysseus and/or Telemakhos could have died. Also, besides Athena protecting and aiding in the battle, she changed something else. In the end of The Odyssey, to ensure that the people of Ithaca did not look at Odysseus the wrong way for slaughtering all the suitors for what they did, she made the everyone forget about the massacre. This was the last thing Athena had to do to make sure Odysseus’ place in Ithaca was secure again. The gods knew he belonged there and he was a good ruler. If word of the massacre spread throughout the area, Odysseus’ reputation would plummet and the people would be be mistrustful and angry with Odysseus and even his son
You are permitted on settle on your choices yet you need support not permitted to lift those results" that quote recognizes for a few pieces in the odyssey. The subject "Through Also through flexibility is An all the all the more persuading move over destiny" may be for a few encounters in the odyssey: those secured proprietor, eating up Hyperions dairy creatures, Moreover The minute that odysseus returns home.
Once Odysseus has served enough time in a place against his will, he would be determined to leave that place. Odysseus’ journey towards home was now going to be able to be finished. For seven years Calypso held him prisoner on the island of Ogygia and he was determined to leave and see to the rest of his journey. Calypso agrees to let him go and she gives Odysseus some advice and guidance saying, "Only I will not aid [you] on [your] way, for I have no ships fitted with oars, nor crews to bear [you] over the broad oceanridges; but I will freely give [you] counsel and not hide how [you] may come unharmed to [your] own native land"(47). Calypso recognizes Odysseus’ greatness. Calypso says she will give some advice, but Odysseus will have to prove his greatness by making his own ship and understand how he will make it home.
Ancient literature often utilized fate and free will to explicate events that have occurred throughout different stories. In both the Epic of Gilgamesh and Homer’s The Odyssey, humans possess limited free will as a result of influence from divine beings.
In Sophocles ' Oedipus the King, the themes of fate and free will are very strong throughout the play. Only one, however, brought about Oedipus ' downfall and death. Both points could be argued to great effect. In ancient Greece, fate was considered to be a rudimentary part of daily life. Every aspect of life depended and was based upon fate (Nagle 100). It is common belief to assume that mankind does indeed have free will and each individual can decide the outcome of his or her life. Fate and free will both decide the fate of Oedipus the King.
Fate has a place in the Greek world but its place is not the same as it is in other scenarios or worlds. It is important to understand the word before we discuss it. Fate as far as Greek mythology goes is not just fate. By most standards fate means that things occur for an unknown reason that no one has any control over. However, in the world of Greek Mythology fate does not just happen. The gods engineer fate and they interfere to make things happen that might not otherwise have happened. Since the players do not always know of the gods' involvement, things may actually appear to be fate but in reality be engineered happenings.
If not for divine interference, neither Odysseus nor Telemachus would have journeys to make. The gods are first responsible for establishing the conditions under which the story begins. While the Greek soldiers had returned home from Troy, Odysseus remained trapped as “the brightest goddess, Calypso, held him in her hollow grottoes” because “she wanted him as a husband” (Homer, Odyssey 1.5, Translation by Allen Mandelbaum). Calypso traps Odysseus on her island of Ogygia and “keeps the sad Odysseus there—although he weeps. Her words are fond and fragrant, sweet and soft—so she would honey him to cast off his Ithaca” (1.7).
The ancient Greeks were fond believers of Fate. Fate, defined according to Webster’s, is “the principle or determining cause or will by which things in general are believed to come to be as they are or events to happen as the do.” The Greeks take on Fate was slightly modified. They believed that the gods determined Fate: “…fate, to which in a mysterious way the gods themselves were subject, was an impersonal force decreeing ultimate things only, and unconcerned with day by day affairs.” It was thought that these gods worked in subtle ways; this accounts for character flaws (called harmatia in Greek). Ancient Greeks thought the gods would alter a person’s character, in order for that person to suffer (or gain from) the appropriate outcome. Such was the case in Oedipus’s story.
The Odyssey details Odysseus’ arduous return to his homeland. Ten years have passed since the end of the Trojan war and Odysseus, the “most cursed man alive”, has been missing and presumed dead by many. (10.79). Throughout the novel, gods play a significant role in the fate of Odysseus and other characters. The extent of the gods’ role though is not unqualified, contrary to Telemachus’ suggestion that, “Zeus is to blame./He deals to each and every/ laborer on this earth whatever doom he pleases” (1.401-403). While Zeus does have this power, his description of how humans meet their fate is more accurately depicted throughout the novel. As he aptly points out, “from us alone, the say, come all their miseries, yes,/ but they themselves, with their own reckless ways,/ compound their pain beyond their proper share” (1.38-52). While the gods do doom certain mortals, many of these mortals exacerbate their ill fate by making rash decisions and ignoring the gods’ warnings. The gods are also not always disrupting mortals lives; they often aid mortals in need. In fact, mortals who effectively court the favor of the gods often benefit greatly. While the gods’ powers are unquestionable, no one god’s power is insurmountable. Gods can be outsmarted and their wrath escaped. The Odyssey, in congruence with Zeus’ statement, ultimately, portrays human freedom as existent, but limited.
The idea of fate has existed for a long time and exists even today. Fate revolves around the idea that people's lives are predetermined and that no matter what is done it cannot be changed. With the gods it was used to explain events that seemed strange. Sophocles expands on this idea by introducing Oedipus' fate. The thought of fate is strong considering no matter how hard he struggles he still receives what was predetermined. As a baby he survived the elements on Mount Cithaeron. As Oedipus was destined to live, it shows the dominance of fate. Having fate play such a large part of the play is certainly an insight into the Greek's idea that fate controls us no matter how hard we struggle against it.
In English literature and Greek mythologies fate and free will played colossal responsibilities in creating the characters in the legendary stories and plays. The Greek gods believed in fate and interventions, predictions of a life of an individual before and after birth which the individual has no control over their own destiny. Free will and fate comingle together, this is where a person can choose his own fate, choose his own destiny by the choices the individual will make in their lifetime. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the definition of free will is the “freedom of humans to make choices that are not determined by prior cause of divine intervention”. Fate and the gods who chose their destinies directed Gilgamesh, Oedipus and Achilles.
Fate forcefully controls several characters in The Odyssey. Several characters experience a sense of helplessness when they are told something that involves their future. This is first seen when Odysseus is told that he must travel to the underworld to hear a prophecy from Teirêsias. Odysseus describes his
The gods are not fated to die as they are immortals. This lack of fate does not mean they can disregard what is proscribed by a mortal's unknowingly chosen fate. When Zeus sees Hector fleeing from Achilles “Come then, you immortals, take thought and take counsel, whether to rescue this man or weather to make him, for all his valor, go down under the hands of Achilles, the son of Peleus”(XXII: 174-173) to which Pallas Athena responds “Father of the shining bolt, dark missted what is this you said? Do you wish to bring back a man who is mortal, one long since doomed by his destiny, from ill-sounding death and release him?” Aethena ask this question as Zeus ask an impossible task that can not be completed regardless of his wishes. There is a caveat to the rules of godly interference in the lives of mortals.
They believed, that they had a set destiny that they could not alter. In Greek myth, Fate was often very mysterious and hard to explain and quite possibly more powerful than Zeus. Early myth explains Fate as a power, much like death. Hamilton says Homer makes, “Hera ask him (Zeus) scornfully if he proposes to deliver from death a man Fate has doomed,” (Hamilton 26). Despite the Greek beliefs that they could not change their fate, they still attempted to understand it. Early Greek myth shows humans trying to understand fate through myths about Apollo’s oracle. Apollo’s oracle is able to predict the future, but its messages are often vague and puzzling. So even though people could be told their future they did not necessarily understand it. The early Greeks clearly believed that life was fixed and nothing they did could change
Sophocles’ play “Oedipus Tyrannus” is about how Athenians view their gods and their fate. Athenians believed that their fate was not left up to man, but that is provided solely on the whims their gods. The interesting aspect of this story is not that one believes that fate is real, but that fate can be changed by not following the predictions
Both cite fate in their dialogue, but neither gives it much credit. Hera does not warn Zeus of the dangers of fighting against fate, but instead puts her trust in power and logic. Zeus makes his decision only after Hera points out the reasons why saving Patroclus would be detrimental to his status, not when she reminds him that Sarpedon is fated to die. The passage reveals fate is to be nothing but a penciled-in plan—one that the gods can defy at their whim. This has profound implications for the rest of the text. Mortal men in the Iliad frequently struggle with their fate, but never challenge it. They see fate as an immovable object, something that can be resisted but never defied outright. If fate is as empty as the text suggests, these men are blindly following the gods’ fickle desires when they could be controlling their own lives. They follow fate to war and to their deaths. Without this illusion leading them, how would the story change? Would there be one? Only the gods