Fate In The Odyssey Essay

Shrunga Malavalli

11436985

Hon 380

Ancient Greek Myth speaks of three goddesses, Klotho - “The Spinner” who spins the thread of mortal life, Lakhesis - “The Apportioner of Lots” who measures the thread and Atropos, who snips the thread once it has come to its due end. These three goddesses , collectively called the Moirae were a personification of the Greek belief of man’s inescapable destiny. Modern schools of thought encompass the idea of Fate under the umbrella of the consequences of an individual’s choices with the added uncertainty of chance. However , in the Ancient Greek mind, Moira or Fate was seen as a predestined immutable external entity that people and even gods were beholden to that fundamentally shaped their existence. Throughout classic works we see the discussions about fate and the ultimate futility of human existence - Our own mortality. One wouldn’t assume that a society that was as aware of its own ephemeral nature would subscribe to the notions of the quest for glory and greatness that we see so often in The Iliad, The Odyssey or in the historic accounts of

Odysseus seems to have brought his misfortune onto himself as in the case of his encounter with the Cyclopes. He makes the foolhardy decision to tell Polyphemos his name and setting Poseidon ,and Fate in a certain sense, on a course for vengeance against the man who blinded his son - “Hear me, Poseidon who circle the earth, dark-haired. If truly I am your son, and you acknowledge yourself as my father, grant that Odysseus, sacker of cities, son of Laertes, who makes his home in Ithaka, may never reach that home; but if it is decided that he shall see his own people, and come home to his strong-founded house and to his own country, let him come late, in bad case, with the loss of all his companions, in someone else’s ship, and find troubles in his