Free Will In Epic Of Gilgamesh And Homer's The Odyssey

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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. Within the Epic of Gilgamesh, instances of characters’ fate are determined by an external being. For example, in Tablet VII, Enkidu dreams of Enlil’s conclusion regarding the killing the Bull of Heaven and Humbaba; “Let Enkidu die, but let not Gilgamesh die!” (Tablet VII, pg. 55). By the end of the tablet, we see Enkidu die from the God’s curse; however, opposing point of views would claim that Enkidu would have died regardless of his actions with Gilgamesh, stating that he died of an illness

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