Ancient Greeks lived a very unique lifestyle in their times. They knew no one of Greece. This helped them to live by their own ways and not follow anything that happened outside of Greece because they simply could not. In parts of Greek mythology gods could not interfere with fate and gods intervened directly in mortals lives. There were many examples of these things happening.
One aspect learned in the Voyage of Odysseus was gods could not interfere with fate. There were many encounters where fate overpowered gods in Greek mythology. For example, what happened with Polyphemus and Odysseus. Odysseus hurt Polyphemus by tricking him into drinking too much which left him unconscious and defenseless. Odysseus took advantage of this and stabbed him in the eye. He then left and went on his journey home. In the story Polyphemus says,
I call upon Poseidon, the god of the sea, whose son am I, to avenge upon you, upon Poseidon to grant that you, Odysseus may never come to your home,or if the gods have ordained your return that you come to it after much toil and suffering, in an evil plight and in a strangers ship, to find sorrow in your home (Colum, 199-200)
This proves that gods cannot interfere with fate because Polyphemus called upon Poseidon to interfere with Odysseus’ fate but Poseidon could not, Odysseus got home safely and untouched by Poseidon. He enjoyed a safe journey home. This shows how in the end, Odysseus’ fate overcame Poseidon as a god and what he wished or intended for in the story the Voyage of Odysseus. This is one of the examples of how gods cannot interfere with fate of others.
The Essay on Ordained By Fate Aeneas Virgil Homer
Fate: Would Homer and Virgil Be The Same Without It? In Virgil's Aeneid and Homer's Iliad, a picture of the supernatural and its workings was created. In both works, there is a concept of a fixed order of events which is called fate. Fate involves two parts. First, there are laws that govern certain parts of men's' lives, such as human mortality and an afterlife. Second, fate deals with the ...
Another aspect was gods intervened directly in mortals lives. This happened more than once, but one of the times was when Achilles hurt his knee during the battle between him and Hector. Achilles states in the story, “Die, hound. My fate I meet when Zeus and the other gods decree.”
(Church 131) Achilles hurt his knee during the battle, and gods cured it so he could keep running. This is one thing that happened in the Trojan War that explains how gods intervened directly in mortals live. Therefore if Achilles was not cured by the gods he would not able to keep running and would likely not be able to win the battle.
Overall, during Greek mythology there were many encounters with goals but we have realized gods could not interfere with fate. Although gods could not interfere with fate they did intervene with mortals lives. After reading Greek mythology what can truly be said about it is it is a very interesting topic to learn about and great for all ages.
