Jesse MondayDr. KeyComp May 29, 2014TitleWhen looking at Greek mythology we tend to encounter the gods of that time. Sometimes they work in the background of the human part of the story, but in epics like the Odyssey the gods play a very important if not central role in the main developments of the story. The term Destiny has a place in the ancient Greek world but is very different from other parts of the world. I have learned that it is important to understand the context before discussing the situation. Many people think that fate happens for unknown reasons and no one has any control over what happens. However, the ancient Greeks did not believe that fate was a random event. They believed that the gods created destiny and would constantly intervene to make things happen that would not happen. Since the characters tend not to know about the gods' interference, events appear to be the result of fate but are actually planned by the gods. The presence of free will, on the other hand, was not an artificial thing. It was the idea of ​​having complete control over your actions and decisions. They believed that the gods invented the way to go, but you as a person always had the choice to follow it. So we see that free will and destiny can occur at the same time and do so throughout the entire Odyssey. The Odyssey often demonstrates that life is your responsibility. Instead of leaving everything to fate, the characters had a major effect on their lives. The gods offer many options to the characters and control where the story goes, but it is still the characters' choice to follow these orders. The gods kept Odysseus imprisoned for eight years. It was they who led to his capture and then refused to release him......middle of paper......b. 08 May 2014. Solomon, Robert C. “On Fate and Fatalism.” Philosophy East and West 53.4 (2003): 435-54. JSTOR. Network. 08 May 2014. .Strong, C. A. “Fate and Free Will.” The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology, and Scientific Methods.Vol. 15, no. 1 (1918): 5-9. JSTOR. Network. 08 May 2014. .Tolkien, JRR and Carl F. Hostetter. "Destiny and Free Will." Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review 6.(2009): 183-188. MLA international bibliography. Network. May 8, 2014.Wilson, Joe. "Homer and the Will of Zeus." University Literature 34.2 (2007): 150-173. Academic research completed. Network. May 8 2014.