Free Will In Homer's The Odyssey

Odysseus is the leader of his men and it is his job to return them home safely. They look up to Odysseus and follow him, whether they believe he has made the right or wrong decision. When Odysseus and his men are stuck with the cyclops it is Odysseus that comes up with the plan to save them. Odysseus is smart and is favored by Athena and as such, Athena helps him devise a plan. One time when Odysseus’ men do not seek his advice they make a mistake and it costs them on their journey. “While Odysseus is sleeping the men open the bag, thinking it contains gold and silver. The bad winds thus escape and blow the ships back to Aeolus’ island.” “Book Ten, Page 916.” The quote shows that the men need Odysseus there to help them and that without him Odysseus men make stupid decisions. Because the men opened the bag Aeolus did not help them again, he believed that their voyage was cursed.

Free will and fate are both prominent in the Odyssey. In the Odyssey, free will is depicted whenever characters make decisions. In example, Odysseus blinds the Cyclops, Polyphemus. Fate, in the Odyssey, is the consequences that are dealt out due to certain actions. In the case of Odysseus and Polyphemus, the consequence is that when Odysseus is on a ship heading home to reach Ithaca, Poseidon, being the father of Polyphemus, sends a storm at Odysseus being angry that Odysseus blinded his son. In that scenario, Odysseus makes the decision to blind Polyphemus to escape, and in turn, the consequence is that Poseidon attempts to hit him with a storm in the sea. The contrasting themes of

Odysseus is spoken to by Eurylochus when the ship is nearing an island and still does not realize what he has done to his crew even when Eurylochus says “‘your crew’s half-dead with labor, starved for sleep’” (12.305). Eurylochus’ words go straight through Odysseus, as he only responds with a plea that would put him on good terms with the gods, not what would keep his crew safe and sound. Odysseus does not realize what he has done to so many valuable lives, he only continues to think about himself. Next, Eurylochus continues to step on Odysseus, telling him how inconsiderate it is for him to keep them cooped up on the ship and not letting them off to rest on land (12.306). Still, Odysseus is absolutely clueless on what he has done wrong. The men are fighting against him, yet he stands there and takes it as he does not think what they are saying is correct. After Odysseus finally step onto the island, having already enforced to the crew that the cattle should be left unharmed, he comfortably sits back as they “slaughtered and skinned the cattle” (12.386). If he really worried about the consequences, he would have supervised his crew while on the island. Instead, he fell asleep and left his crew to do exactly what they were not supposed to. Though, when he woke up and saw what the crew had done, he was quick to pray

In Homer's story of The Odyssey , Odysseus poses as many people one of which being a poor beggar. Odysseus Went on a mission and has stumbled across an island. On this island Odysseus is pampered like a baby. Odysseus had nothing to worry about , although he has have a mission to continue. Odysseus came across the tough decision on if to stay or to depart and continue his mission. Odysseus chose to continue on his journey.

The Character that are in the Odyssey do not have “free will” as we define it today. Their fate is has already been decided, and there is not much that they can do to change what is going to happen. There is still a way to change how they get to their fate. Free will and fate are not mutually exclusive, even the gods can help change what is fated to come. It is clear that if you add all of this together you have flexible definition of what is “fated”.

During Odysseus’s journey in The Odyssey, his own guile, the gods’ obstacles and their assistance for him affected his destiny. Odysseus uses his crafty sense of trickery and guile to get out of situations, which allow him to reach his destiny of returning home. Many times in The Odyssey the gods who dislike Odysseus set obstacles to try to stop him from returning home. However, there are gods who favor him and give him assistance to reach his homeland of Ithaca.

In The Odyssey, the Greek hero Odysseus must make it back to his home in Ithaca after the battle of Troy. Along his journey, he encounters obstacles that require the upmost perseverance and willpower to survive. Some of these obstacles include a giant cyclops who wants to eat him, lotus-eating peoples that drug his crew, violent storms that

In college, one of the big things you end up learning is life lessons and also learning from your mistakes in general. In the book “The Odyssey of Homer” by Richard Lattimore, there are many life lessons that Odysseus and his crew show to the readers. One of the main life lessons that college students learn is the lesson of self control.

Odysseus, King of Ithaca, and the main character in homer’s The Odyssey, was gone for twenty years before finally returning to his family and his homeland. He struggled through many hardships and lost many loyal companions. The King of Ithaca would not have made it home without the assistance of the Greek gods. Despite all of the help and advice that Odysseus receives from the gods, he is a very brave man because his courage and daring in the cave of the Cyclops, his inability to give up and abandon his men on Circe’s island, and his flawless following of the gods instructions are acts of bravery that is uncommon in most men.

So when the Cicones gather an army from inland to ward off the Greek invaders, Odysseus loses many men and rather than acknowledge his error in judgment, he shifts the blame of the defeat to his crew. Convincing himself that he is not at fault for having been defeated, but rather his selfish crew who refused to leave, he justifies his actions, “Then I urged them to cut and run, set sail, but would they listen? Not those mutinous; there was too much wine to swill, too many sheep to slaughter”(9.50-52). Odysseus knows that if he stays on the island, the Cicones will rally an army and come to kill Odysseus and his men. Despite this, he stays and reassures himself that the major defeat was by Zeus’ hand, “Zeus presented us with disaster us, me and my comrades doomed to suffer”(9.61-62). Homer teaches us that no matter how many great accolades one holds, they are destined to fail if they cannot own up to their mistakes and actions.

1. In a world governed by the gods, is there any room for human will?

“Thinking before acting is wisdom, but acting before thinking is regret. (PictureQuotes.com)” This quote relates directly to the main character in The Odyssey, Odysseus, who is trying to get home to his wife and son who are being bombarded by suitors to take her hand in marriage, unknowing of the return of Odysseus. As Odysseus journeys home with his crew, they overcome many obstacles with the help of his leadership and the mythological greek gods, yet lose many crew members along the way. Throughout The Odyssey, Odysseus endangers many people including people he does not even know. As much as people may say that Odysseus was a great leader, there is more evidence that he puts his crew in danger absent-mindedly, risks his family to get revenge, and deals with his problematic people in cruel and idiotic ways, proving he is not, in fact, a morally good man.

    Fate seems to defy humanity at every turn.  A man may have his life planned out to the last second, but then some random force intervenes and he dies the second after he has completed his life plan.  Some believe in fate, believing that our lives are predetermined from the moment we are born.  Other people believe that everything is random, the result of some god rolling the dice in a universal poker game.  Still other people believe that each and every person is in total control of his or her destiny, every step of the way.  Who is to say which viewpoint is false?  Every culture has a unique perception of the role of fate in our lives, and no group has the "right answer," simply a

Oedipus is now an old man who has been blinded from self-inflicted wounds to avoid confronting his mistakes, and through his misery he begins to realize the will of the gods may be the right way after all. Perhaps freewill is a tool used by the gods to prove how inept humanity is at ruling themselves. Oedipus, the embodiment of broken taboos, finds himself in a position in which he will determine which city-state will flourish over the coming centuries. His entire life, ruled by arrogant autonomy, was defined by pain and suffering. However, his death, guided by the will of the gods, was defined by self-sacrifice, generosity, and religious piety (Oedipus and Colonus 1884). Sophocles uses Oedipus at Colonus as an example illustrating the foolishness of freewill, how it is a deterrent from honor rather than a means to

Often, what makes a tale engaging is a character who is profoundly flawed or has been unjustly wronged. It is through this that the reader begins to understand the nature of the human condition. Such is the case of Achilles, in the poem Iliad, and Paul in his thanksgiving letters to the Philippians. Ultimately, these two works are alike in that both deal with the interaction between fate and free will. Although, they differ in the champion’s values.