The Role Of Fate And Fate In Homer's The Iliad

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In The Iliad by Homer, the fate of the mortals is affected by the god’s interference in the war. Homer does not make it clear whether man or gods are in control of fate. The mortals’ decisions may affect their fate,but on the other hand, the gods change the fate of the war by giving bits of wisdom to the mortals to make decisions and help to protect people who are in danger. Though mortals can make decisions that alter fate, the gods uphold the idea that fate is inevitable in a mortal 's life and even though the immortals realize that each mortal has a specific fate, they still intervene in the battle to help certain people by sending muses and inspirations and protecting mortals from dying. The rest of fate is dependent on human free will …show more content…
Fate is very important to Zeus and he believes that it should not be tampered with which is why he is cautious to not go against fate. Zeus, unlike the other gods, remains neutral when the war begins because he values justice and the true fate of the mortals based on only their decisions. He does not directly interfere with the mortals to give them advantages over the each opposing side and does not favor neither the Trojans nor the Achaeans. However, there is a bit of flexibility with Zeus’s will when Homer manipulates the will of Zeus to give or withhold glory from each side of the war. Homer manipulates this by using the other gods to interfere in the war by giving the mortals inspirations that the gods give them, this interference can impact fate indirectly by the gods and if the mortals choose not to use the muses that the gods give them then mortals will directly impact fate.
In book 5, Diomedes was chosen to receive great strength and courage from Athena as an aide to give the Achaeans some help against the Trojans. Tydeus, Diomedes’ father prays to
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Athena, who was sent by Hera, appears only to Achilles and stresses that he must stop the fighting because if Achilles kills Agamemnon the Achaean Army would have been without their leading commander. The will of Zeus would change without him as the commander of the war and this would make Zeus angry because he told the other gods to stay out of the war. Athena would’ve failed to as an aid to the Achaeans because as an aid she should make sure that everything is in favor of fate. At another point in the battle Odysseus almost kills the son of Zeus, Sarpedon. As Odysseus begins to kill multiple people he starts to go towards Sarpedon “but no, it was not the gallant Odysseus’ fate to finish Zeus’s rugged son with his sharp bronze, so Pallas swung his fury against the Lycian front” (5.774-776). Apollo, who is an aid to the Trojans, is aware that Sarpedon death at this specific moment in the war was not a part of Sarpedon’s fate. If Apollo had not interfered in the battle to protect Sarpedon from being killed by Odysseus, the course of the war would have change which would ultimately change fate. A change in fate would be against the will of Zeus because he believes that fate should not be altered. Zeus believes that fate should never be tampered

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