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1. Definition: fate can be controlled by the gods but they don't take away the mortals' free will. The gods control fate to a certain extent and let the happenings take course. Mortals are responsible for making their own decisions to change their fate or make choices.

2. Chapter 1- the muse sings about Odyssey and mentions that the gods were trying to prevent his safe return

3. Definition: fate might be engineered by the gods but the mortals always have a free will to make their own choices or change their fate.

4. How gods control fate, decisions

   • Chapter 1- first evidence seen by the muse who mentions that the gods have interfered in Odysseus's safe homecoming, for example Poseidon and Calypso. The gods also during the assembly decide Odysseus's fate and make a plan. Another example is when Athena advises Telemachus to visit Sparta and Pylos to hear of his father.
     • Quotes: "Odysseus alone was prevented from returning to the home and wife he yearned by that powerful goddess-Calypso"
       • "Poseidon who pursued the heroic Odysseus with relentless malice"
         • Athena:..sending Hermes so he can inform Calypso of " our unalterable decision that patient Odysseus must now set out for home
           • Athena:"I myself will go to Ithaca to instil more spirit into Odysseus's son and encourage him to call the long haired Ached to assembly...I shall send him to Sparta and to sandy Pylos
   • Chapter 2 - during the Telemachus assembly Zeus sends two eagles which tear each other over the crowd- the prophecy is interpreted that the Suitors would be under revenge. This shows how the gods already planned what to do with them. Another example is when Athene took charge as Telemachus to gather a new crew and then made the suitors fall asleep
     • Quotes: Disguising herself as Telemachus she went all through the town picked out her twenty men- athena
       • she lulled the suitors there into a state of pleasant drowsiness-athena
   • Chapter 3- When Nestor speaks about the travels he mentions how Athena created the feud between Meleneus and Agamemnon- which determined the fates of the men Odysseus stayed at Troy with Agamemnon.
   • Chapter 4- Meleneus was helped to escape by a goddess Eidothea who guided him to Proteus, who then advised him to make proper sacrifices and then the gods allowed him to return home safely.
     • quotes: the goddess questioned Meleneus- " have you simply given up....are you completely stupid?", the sight of me touched her heart deeply.
   • chapter 5- The gods assemble to decide Odysseus's fate- they sent Hermes to Calypso, Ino the goddess gives a special scarf to save Odysseus and Athena controls the winds so he lands at Phaecia.
     • quotes: hermes to calypso: "he is destined to see his friends and come to his high-roofed house and his native island once more"
       • athena- "she flattened the waves in the swimmer's path so that odysseus favourite of Zeus might be rescued from the jaws of the death and come into the hands of Phaeacians
         • (as odysseus was trying to cling to the land)- the unhappy man would have come to an unpredestined end, if Athena had not given him a good idea.
   • chapter 6- Athena again directly interferes into odysseus fate by disguising as a girl in Nausicaa dream which provokes her to go to the exact location where Odysseus is sleeping and has already planned for nausicaa to be his escort to the palace
     • quotes: Athena had other ideas and arranged for odysseus to wake up and see this lovely girl who was to serve as his escort
   • chapter 9- the cyclops was expecting the arrival of odysseus which was part of a prophecy and fate made by evurymus, poseidon hears the giant's prayer and now places obstacles in the journey
     • " But i always expected some big handsome man to come along ...and now a punny feeble-good for nothing fuddles me with my wine and then puts out my eye"
   • Chapter 10- hermes gives Odysseus a drug to protect himself from Circe and gave a plan which Odysseus followed
   • Chapter 11- tiresias noted that everyone crew member's fate is sealed- already knows what happens if they touch the cattle of sheep and he also mentions that Odysseus will return home
     • "you seek a happy way home"
       • it is true that you will take revenge on these men
         • gentle death, you will die peacefully surrounded by prosperous people
   • Chapter 15- Athena plans a meeting between the son and father, commands Telemachus to return home
     • "it is wrong for you to linger abroad and leave your property unguarded..urge your host meleneus to let you go at once"

5. how people control their own fate

   • Chapter 1- Zeus during assembly states that the actions of their mortals affect their sufferings which were not part of their fate
     • Zeus: "what a lamentable thing it is that men should blame the gods and regard us the source of their troubles when it is their transgressions which bring them suffering which was no their destiny
   • Chapter 2 - Athena lifts up Telemachus's spirit and advises him to built a crew and ignore the Suitors. It might be argued that the goddess is just directing him or promising that he would be successful but its his choice to follow this advice and listen to it. He ignores his servant's words that he shouldn't leave home
   • chapter 5- Calypso questions Odysseus if he wants to suffer while he travels home instead of staying with her, to which he refuses as he wants to return home, he was also trying to control his fate by refusing to wear ino's veil at first and debating with himself at the unknown land whether to go to the woods and risk himself as a prey or or keep awake, at the end he chooses the first option.
     • quotes: odysseus- "I shall do what i myself think is the best. As long as the joints of the planks hold fast, I shall stay where I am and endure the suffering"
       • calypso: "yet had you any inkling of the full measure of misery you are bound to endure...share this home with me and take immortality
         • odysseus responce: I long to reach my home and see the day of my return...So let this new disaster come.It only makes one more
   • chapter 9- while the crew and Odysseus were at the Cicones land they couldn't restrain themselves from plundering the land there that the cicones army killed many of the men. These actions angered Zeus- the men were responsible for their fate. Odysseus decision not to eat the lotus fruit also fastened his homecoming and he saved the fates of his crew. Another example is when Odysseus restrains from killing the cyclop and schemes a plan to escape. However its Odysseus's fault that he reveals his name and now he is under the Poseidon-Cyclop revenge
     • quotes: odysseus- "i sacked this place and destroyed its menfolk"
       • "my fools of men refused. there was plenty of wine...and they kept on drinking, butchering
         • The cyclop to Poseidon: " If i am yours indeed , grant that odysseus sacker of cities...may never reach his home"
   • chapter 10- the crew opened the bag of wind which could have brought them back to Ithaca, the crew all turned into pigs when they allowed themselves to be deceived by her while Eurylochus refused. Circe doesn't know how Odysseus should return home so she advises him to go to the underworld- to allow free will
     • "my gallant company were not difficult to persuade. we stayed on day after day feasting on lavish quantities
       • eurylochus came with us after all, he was afraid of the stinging rebuke i might give to him"-odysseus
         • "in their innocence the whole party followed her in. But Eurylochus suspected a trap and stayed outside
           • "but it was our own stupidity which deprived us of the wind"
   • chapter 11- the crew members must not touch the cattle if they want to get home- they can now take control of their actions
   • chapter 12- to avoid the two monsters circe notes that odysseus must choose himself which one to face first-in control of fate, with the help of eurylochus they chose punishment over starvation and ate the cattle
     • "two routes will be open to you. though i cannot give you precise advice- you must choose for yourself
       • "i would sooner drown instantly in a watery grave than waste away by slow degrees on a desert island"

6. chapter 12- the gods have decided to prevent the crew to come home

   • "there was no homecoming for them: the gods saw to that"

7. chapter 18- even though one of the suitors offers food to the beggar odysseus he is fated to die he doesn't have control over his fate

   • "athena had already marked him out to fall to a spear from Telemachus'hand"

8. chapter 20- the omens from the eagles foreshadow the suitor's death but its too late to change their fate they have no control, even after amphinous stops them from scheming

   • "friends our plot to kill telemachus won't succeed. lets feast."