Iliad and the Divine Will

In the Iliad several main characters both Gods and humans show their willingness to except fate and it goes unchallenged. One of the reasons why fate as it existed in the Iliad could not exist today is because the gods of their world played an active and visible role in their lives and deaths. Present day religion does explain the beginning of the world and predicts the end but shows no clear day to day proof that skeptical people can see. In the Iliad not one person denies the fact that there are Gods and that they have power. The word fate in modern day can have a different meaning than it did in the Iliad. If you are a romance reader, fated love is always in the formula but in the reality most people are disturbed to think that there end is near and they are helpless to stop all every human beings eventual outcome; death. If this were not the case then why do governments and individuals spend millions of dollars on researching terminal diseases such as cancer or aids?

If fate played the same role in present day as it did in the Iliad, then most people would accept their death as the way things happen instead of spending time and money fighting terminal diseases. In the Iliad, Achilles knowing that he is fated to die if he revenges the death of his close friend, Patroclus who was killed by the mighty Hector. His mother Thetis, who is a Goddess, tries to persuade him to not fight Hector but knowing all along that he will fight any way and die after killing Hector because although she is a Goddess fate has decided his death to follow him killing Hector. But Fate is also used as a reassurance. In Book 7, Helenos explains to his brother Hector that he has every reason to fight Aias. "For it is not your fate to die now; the voice of the immortal gods has told me so. (Bloom 85)" This reassurance allows Hector to fight during this truce without fear of his own demise. As fate had chosen it for this hero he is to die by the sword of Achilles, whose own death will come by killing Hector. Hector acknowledges fate when he speaks to Aias after their fight has gone on for hours, "Then for this time let us break off, for this one day; later we will fight again, until fate shall decide between us and give the victory to one or the other."

Hector had been reassured that he would not be killed on that day but does not know when fate has decided his death. His death will come later at the hands of Achilles whose own fate already mentioned will find him killed sometime after killing Hector. Agamemnon is disheartened when the Trojans push the Greeks all the way back to their boats was ready to head for home and give up fighting even though the fate of Troy was known to him. Agamemnon addresses his assembly speaking about Zeus, "Once he promised me that I should sack the fenced city of Ilios before I should return; but now he has contrived a cruel deceit, and he bids me go back to Argos dishonored. Agamemnon who is low in spirits then suggests leaving the shores of Troy and heading for home.

This is important because although Agamemnon does not question fate he questions whether it was really fated for Troy to fall. Members of his council soon convince their leader that the fate of Troy is to fall at their hands and it will be in this battle. Albert Einstein once said that, "The individual must not merely wait and criticize, he must defend the cause the best he can. The fate of the world will be such as the world deserves." If Agamemnon had been given the chance to speak with one of the twentieth centuries most influential minds he might have seen that fate didn’t have to be the only motivation to continue fighting. Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Pan American Day address had this to say about fate. "Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds." Former President Roosevelt in this speech was trying to explain that a person who mentally does not believe they can do something would in fact not be able to achieve that goal. In today’s society only a foolish person would wait for fate to bring them to great fortune.

As technology advances a persons ability to exploit an idea and use it to make money becomes smaller. When successful people write about how they made their money hard work is always part of it. Although luck is also an answer commonly attributed with success it is a different idea than fate. As Patroclus is fighting the Trojans dressed in Achilles armor he begins to fight Sarpedon. As Zeus and Hera watch from above, Zeus tells Hera how sad it is that Sarpedon is fated to die by the hand of Patroclus and suggests removing him from the battle and thus saving him from death. Hera replies to her husband saying, "A mortal man, doomed by old fate, and you want to rescue him from death? Do as you like; but you cannot expect the rest of us gods to approve. " It is clear that Zeus has the power to change fate in small circumstances such as these but as Hera states most Gods do not approve of this. She also refers to fate as being old and makes fate seem more predestined as suppose to the lives of the humans argued out by the Gods before the time actually takes place. People today would not be happy knowing that everything had already been decided and that there effort to change the preordained future were pointless. William Jennings Bryan, former Secretary of State in the early 1900s said, "Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved." Our society would not be able to function as a whole if everyone was waiting for things to happen to him or her. In the Iliad the characters spent much of their time pleasing their Gods and waiting for fate to instruct them on what they will do next.

In a world where productivity of workers can be measured in minutes and hours as suppose to the time the Iliad took place when the sun was the only real watch it is important to understand that people cant wait for romanticize ideas such as fate. Sunlight no longer sets the pace of production in modern days but rather machines. The worshipping of the Gods in this book allows the audience to see what a huge role they played in the human beings lives. When Achilles' becomes aware that Particles his closest friend has been killed by Hector he is overwhelmed with anger and even the stubborn pride that kept him from helping his comrades for so long during this war is overpowered. When his mother comes to his side to plea with him into not fighting Hector as this moment she does not mean to alter fate but to simply prolong the life of her son. Thetis pleas with Achilles once again reminding him of this death, "You have not long to live, my child, if you say that. Quick after Hector fate is ready for you!" Achilles cannot see past his feelings and in his anger for what has happened to his friend bursts out, "Quick let me die, since it seems my friend was killed and I was not there to help him!" Achilles here admits that he is a slave to his feelings and also admits his slavery to fate if that is the cost of him being himself.

A modern writer, Alfred A. Montapert wrote once, "Why are we Masters of our Fate, the captains of our souls? Because we have the power to control our thoughts, our attitudes. That is why many people live in the withering negative world. That is why many people live in the Positive Faith world." Montapert is saying that since we alone control our minds that our fate is our own and although Achilles foolish stubborn behavior and later anger at the death of Patroclus could still be the cause of his death in present day, fate would not be factored into the heroes’ demise. The four quotes used from modern influential people all spoke of fate being a state of mind and not the overwhelming force that the Iliad made it out to be.