Destiny, Fate and Free Will in Homers Odyssey :: Homer, Odyssey Essays

part and Free Will in Homers Odyssey When we look at Greek Mythology we often run into the gods of that era. Sometimes they are merely backdrops to the homophile element of the story but in stories such as The Odyssey the gods lean a prominent if non vital role to the central themes of the story. Fate has a mooring in the Greek world but its place is not the same as it is in other scenarios or worlds. It is significant to understand the word before we discuss it. Fate as farthest as Greek mythology goes is not secure indicate. 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 maintain happened. Since the players do not always know of the gods involvement, things whitethorn actually appear to be fate but in naturalism be engineered happenings. Free will on the other hand is not engineered. It speaks to the concept of having full authority over ones aspirations and ultimate direction. The key there is ultimate. The gods can make up the plan and choose the path, but the plurality had to walk it. Therefore, fate and free will are not reciprocally exclusive and they both go on throughout The Odyssey. In The Odyssey brio is ones own responsibility instead of leaving all things up to fate, the characters had a significant influence upon his or her own existence. In The Odyssey the gods are liable for controlling many aspects of where the story goes, but the people close up have to choose to go. The gods in The Odyssey are who held Odysseus captive for over eight years. They were responsible for his capture in the first place and then refused to let him go for almost a decade. When they finally decided he should be allowed to father his way home they made it known to his captor Kalypso. However Odysseus still had to choose to leave. Kalypso tried to keep him by offering immortality. You would stay here, and safety device this house, and be immortal (Homer 267). Odysseus could have stayed but he chose to go. Some regulate that the gods knew Odysseus would not stay and that is why they decided to let him go.