Fate And Free Will In Gilgamesh, Oedipus And Achilles

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Register to read the introduction… Gilgamesh believes that he is immortal and cannot die therefore the people of Uruk ask the Sumerian gods to create an individual equal to Gilgamesh. Enkidu was created the Gods of wisdom Enlil, Ea gave Gilgamesh the fate to see visions in his dream, and he knew Enkidu was coming and he was to love him as a woman. Gilgamesh and Enkidu became great friends and decided together to conquer the world together and to live forever, to have mortality. Upon the death of his companion realization became apparent to Gilgamesh that death will always come, which is something Gilgamesh has to understand, it becomes so with the death of his friend Enkidu, there is no such thing as immortality, and friendship is crucial in life. Fate is not of our own doing but the doing of others and freewill gives us the decisions to make choices in our lives. If Enkidu and Gilgamesh had not challenge Humbaba and Enkidu had not died then Gilgamesh would have never learned the meaning of immortality and that it does not exist and there is no such thing as fate, just …show more content…
The god Apollo said to Oedipus “You are fated to couple with your mother, you will bring a breed of children into the light no man can bear to see-you will kill your father, the one who gave you life!” (The Norton Anthology of World Literature, pg. 638) Oedipus left the home of the parents he knew in order to prevent the fate as prophecies, this was the choice he made in order to prevent a tragedy, however, during his travels, Oedipus killed King Laius a stranger, unknown by Oedipus. In killing King Laius he had brought about one of the prophecies by his own freewill. Oedipus marriage to Jocasta, his mother was of free will and fate couple together due to the death of Jocasta’s husbands Laius. Creon in an attempt to solve the murder of King Laius and end the suffering of the plague that left the fields and women barren, Apollo demands the murder be solved. Teiresias the blind prophet speaks of Oedipus as the individual who caused the plague by the murder of King Laius. Jocasta upon learning of this and knowing of the fate predicted hangs herself. Oedipus once learning of the part he played in ensuring the prediction came true, blinds him self and requests to be banished from the city. In the examples given, free will was the deciding factor in the

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