The Odyssey is a story about a hero, Odysseus, and his journey returning home. Throughout the Odyssey, the Gods control the mortals like puppets. In fact, all of Odysseus’s actions are carefully controlled by the Gods. This is seen when Zeus proclaims Odysseus will return home, when Odysseus escapes Calypso’s island, and when Odysseus is at the land of the Phaeacians. Due to the interference of the Gods’ in Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus does not truly have a free will. During the course of the Odyssey, Odysseus nears his homeland countless times, however, Poseidon sends him away again. Although it seems that Odysseus will never arrive at his homeland due to Poseidon’s interference, Zeus himself says, “For his sake Poseidon, shaker of the earth, although he does not kill Odysseus, yet drives him back from the land of his father's. But come, let all of us who are here work out his homecoming and see to it that he return.” (1.90-95) The first sentence of this quote is talking about Poseidon’s anger for Odysseus. However, the amount of suffering that Odysseus will go through is not described in great detail. This is because Homer is trying to convey that the amount of suffering that Odysseus
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When the Gods agreed to send Odysseus home, they tell Hermes that “You are our messenger, Hermes, sent on all our missions. Announce to the nymph with lovely braids our fixed decree: Odysseus journeys home—the exile must return. But not in the convoy of the Gods or mortal men. No, on a lashed, makeshift raft and wrung with pains, on the twentieth day he will make his landfall, fertile Scheria, the land of Phaeacians.”(5.33-40) Even after he left Calypso's island, he can not travel to Ithica, his homeland. Odysseus has to travel to the island of the Phaeacians first before going back home to Ithica. By giving details about how Odysseus’s voyage will be, Homer is emphasizing how Odysseus doesn’t have a free will even further. If Odysseus did have a free will, than he could have avoided one of the few things that the Gods decided for him. However, because his fate was predetermined, Odysseus was forced to endure these trials. Even after Odysseus escaped Calypso’s island, the Gods helped him throughout his quest, a main example being Athena helping Odysseus in the land of the
When the Gods agreed to send Odysseus home, they tell Hermes that “You are our messenger, Hermes, sent on all our missions. Announce to the nymph with lovely braids our fixed decree: Odysseus journeys home—the exile must return. But not in the convoy of the Gods or mortal men. No, on a lashed, makeshift raft and wrung with pains, on the twentieth day he will make his landfall, fertile Scheria, the land of Phaeacians.”(5.33-40) Even after he left Calypso's island, he can not travel to Ithica, his homeland. Odysseus has to travel to the island of the Phaeacians first before going back home to Ithica. By giving details about how Odysseus’s voyage will be, Homer is emphasizing how Odysseus doesn’t have a free will even further. If Odysseus did have a free will, than he could have avoided one of the few things that the Gods decided for him. However, because his fate was predetermined, Odysseus was forced to endure these trials. Even after Odysseus escaped Calypso’s island, the Gods helped him throughout his quest, a main example being Athena helping Odysseus in the land of the