Fate In The Iliad Essay

When their eyes met, he couldn’t help but see familiarity in the stranger's eyes: this is what we call fate. The word fate only seems to show up when we think two people are right for each other When you think of the word fate, you imagine something like two people meeting by a cafe, and end up having the same flavour drink. That is what fate is to modern day. It's not taken as seriously and it's only for the use to describe love. In Greek mythology however, it's taken seriously. Greek mythology treats fate like a fragile stone, they can’t blame it yet it has so much power to balance or unbalance anything in your life. Fate doesn’t play a major role in our society as of now, we don’t let it affect us and we just push it to the side. We no
longer pay mind to fate. Angelfire implies, “Thusly, we have slowly strangled Fate into thin forms of coincidence that we quickly brush aside during our one-hour lunch breaks on Tuesday afternoons in the local cafe before returning quickly to the office.” Usually we just brush side the small existence of fate left, that shows in our lives. When small existences show up we push it away or pretend we just didn’t see it. When we’re not pushing fate away, we’re admiring it’s work of putting the perfect pair together. We no longer allow it to take control of us and that can be viewed as bad and good. Good: Even though things may seem bad at the moment, we know that the puzzle pieces will always fall into place at some point. Bad: We think it’s some kind of limit that defines what we’re capable of. Hannah Felshuh notes, “...for while individuals are shaped by their fates today, it no longer has to define them.” We don’t let fate affect our decisions, let alone define them. In modern day, people are so obsessed with controlling every aspect of their life that there is no space for fate to perform. With everything planned out there is no room for chance, and chance is the fuel for the fire. Without it the spark won’t ignite and there will be no fire.
According to Angelfire, “This is because our society values, above all else, control, and Fate is the one beautiful thing that cannot possibly survive in a controlled environment.” There can be the perfect balance of Fate and self-control if people would stop trying to have too much of either. In Greek mythology, fate is an employee that has worked long enough so that he no longer has to introduce himself and has earned employee of the month for how well respected he is.
To Greek mythology, fate is an important figure to their belief. Hannah Felshuh points out, “However, in the Iliad and many other works of Greek literature, fate is such a natural and ubiquitous phenomenal that it is accepted as a reality of daily life.” Fate is naturally built into their daily lives and they accept that. An essay, Destiny, Fate and Free Will in Homer’s Odyssey, acknowledges, “However, in the world of Greek mythology fate does not just happen. The gods engineer fate and they interfere to make things happen that might not otherwise have happened.” The Gods are the ones to maneuver fate to interfere with things that were suppose to
happen.
Fate is such a significant role that they don’t only have one goddess, they have three to represent fate itself. One goddess wasn’t enough to emphasize the importance of it so they made three. They are called the Moirai and the individuals were called Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos.
Evangelia Hatzitsinidou adds, “There were three Fates in Greek mythology: Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos.
Clotho, the spinner, was the youngest of the three Fates; she spun the thread of destiny with a distaff, determining the time of birth of an individual; Lachesis measured the thread length to determine the length of life; finally, cruel Atropos cut the thread of life, determining this way the time of death.” Basically, Clotho determines the birthdate, Lachesis measures the length of their life and Atropos determines when it’s their time of death.
Fate in modern day society, was seen as unimportant. However, that changed when people began to perceive fate for what it truly is. Previously, fate was neglected. Nowadays, people are opening their eyes and seeing how important and real fate really is. Robert Solomon confirms, “Until recently, the concepts of fate and fatalism were both very widely accepted and taken seriously.” It wasn’t until recently that people started seeing fate for what it is and not pushing it
aside. Fate shifted in modern day but in Greek mythology, fate still has the same perception. Fate in Greek mythology exists and is still present today. It has already been widely known and today it is still a common term. Evangelia Hatzitsinidou claims, “The Fates (Moirae) were the spinners of the thread of life, determining the span of human life of every mortal from birth to death. No other god had the right or the means to alter their decisions. The Fates were the personifications of destiny; nevertheless, no human could blame the fates, since there were times he was the only one responsible for his failures.” Fate still has the same effect on the society, they still hold at a strong meaning of the word fate. Fate in Greek mythology probably has a greater role than fate in Modern Day. Fate has already been accepted while fate in modern day is being recognized only now. Also Greek Mythology has a different meaning and holds more responsibility compared to the modern version. Fate in modern day is so infatuated with love, but for Greek mythology it’s rather of greater concern. Fate is slowly turning its way around in modern day but no matter how fast it goes it won’t catch up to the role fate plays in Greek mythology.