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What Role Does Fate Play In The Iliad

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What Controls the Outcome?
The outcome of the war: Is it controlled by the actions of mere mortals? Do the gods determine the successes and failures? Is the outcome solely a matter of fate? Some may believe that mortals have free will, but after a quick skim of the Iliad, this belief is clearly shown to be false. Humans are not given control over their destinies; however, if this is true, then what are these destinies controlled by? Fate seems to be the only answer, yet, can fate alone stop a god from changing outcomes for their personal gain? In the Iliad, gods and humans are shown to have a varying degree of control on the outcome of human life and death. The true controller of the outcome of success vs. failure, and life vs. death, will be analyzed with …show more content…
I. 48). During this part of the book, Chryses is upset due to Agamemnon’s taking of his daughter. While Chryses’ prayer does eventually result in the return of his daughter, conflict continues to rise due to the hubris of Agamemnon and Achilles. Achilles becomes humiliated when Agamemnon tries to take his war prize, and even though he was fighting for the Achaeans, he prays to Athena that she would “Go and sit beside him [Zeus], grasp his knees.../persuade him, somehow, to help the Trojan cause” (Il. I. 485-486). While these two examples are miniscule in light of the entire Iliad, they exemplify a recurring theme of prayer to a higher power throughout this work. Prayer not only served as an outlet for both sides of the war when they needed to cry out, but the gods generally responded to the prayers. Overall, while human warriors certainly were able to give their all in war, a great deal of their influence was through prayer to the gods. Most importantly, what the gods were willing to do in response to these prayers from both the Achaeans and the

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