Odyssey

The Odyssey is an epic poem that revolves around Odysseus and his journey home from the war at Troy. Throughout his travels he is met with many obstacles and adventures and at are times it appears he will never make it home. When we look at Greek Mythology we often run into the gods of that era. The gods play a prominent if not vital role to the central themes of the story. 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. Free will on the other hand is not engineered. It speaks to the concept of having full authority over one's aspirations and ultimate direction. The key there is “ultimate.” The gods can make up the plan and choose the path, but the people had to walk it. Therefore, fate and free will are not mutually exclusive and they both go on throughout The Odyssey. In The Odyssey life is one's 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 responsible for controlling many aspects of where the story goes, but the people still 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 find 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 guard this house, and be immortal” (Homer 267). Odysseus could have stayed but he chose to go. Some say that the gods knew Odysseus would not stay and that is why they decided to let him go. However, knowledge of an act doesn’t take away the fact that Odysseus chose himself. The gods took much of his life away and Odysseus had more reason than anyone to give up and say to himself, “This is my fate.” Just as Ann, a critic of The Odyssey says, "Blaming the gods for your faults doesn't always work, though. There's a difference between having a fate and accepting your fate. The real heroes never give in.” (Ann par. 26) That difference, between having fate and accepting it, is free will. Once they have controlled the “fate” of certain people the gods let the happenings take course. It is true that the gods interfere with the lives of the people, but that never takes away their free will. Zeus says it himself in the beginning of The Odyssey while talking to other gods upon Olympus, “My word how mortals take the gods to task! All their afflictions come from us, we hear. And what of their own failings?” (Homer 210) This statement by Zeus shows that the people are indeed responsible for themselves and have the ability to make their own choices. Regarding the same verse Torrey stated, “This makes it seem that while men don’t take responsibility in the Odyssey, the gods say they should...” (Philemon, par. 1). Zeus also gives us another good example in that same speech. Here he questions Aigмsthos of taking his advice. “We gods had warned him, send down Hermes, our most observant courier, to say: …. Friendly advice-but would Aigмsthos take it?” (Homer 210). The fact that Zeus sent down a messenger and questioned Aigмsthos taking the advice means that Aigмsthos had the choice to take it. Otherwise it wouldn’t have even been a question because Zeus wouldn’t have give Aigмsthos any options. In some areas it is pertinent that the gods interfere. For example, Athena went to Ithaka and advised Odysseus’s son to call an assembly. The purpose of the assembly was supposed to be to gather community support in opposing Penelope's suitors. Penelope had waited a long time for her husband Odysseus to come home and in the end she gave up and began allowing suitors to come around. Just as Odysseus was finding his way home she was seeing others and Athena thought a community effort to keep the men away was in