Greek Mythology: Oedipus Free Will

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Fate or Free Will In the myths of Ancient Greek Mythology there has been a debate that involves every Greek hero. Did ancient Greek heros have free will, or was it just fate a destiny pre-determined by the gods? Perfect examples of fate vs. free will are found easily throughout Greek Mythology; the story of Oedipus and Odysseus. Oedipus was an born of King Laios and Queen Jocasta of Thebes. Shortly before the birth of Oedipus King Laios approached an oracle. The oracle foretold of his newborn son's future stating that his son would kill his father and marry his mother. Hearing this Laius and Jocasta were both shocked and scared. Laius bound his son's legs with chains and gave him to a shepherd to leave the baby exposed atop a mountain so…show more content…
This story presents an upfront view of the gods’ engineering on Odysseys choices. Throughout the story Odysseus allows all sorts of events to happen to him. He does not choose to leave the goddess Kalypso, he chooses to “defeat” the new suitors who have not only moved in on, but with his wife. His choices were not that of actual hero, he had two gods to blame. Athena and Poseidon whom were basically considered the most influential and dominant engineers in Odysseys life. Here it is hard to say if one can have free will while gods are constantly around them. Athena is working, adding or lessening the obstacles of Odysseus life while on the other hand you have Poseidon trying to counteract Athena's efforts and all together end Odysseus’s life. The most memorable plays on Odysseys life was when his appearance was altered to make the crowd respect him, of course by Athena’s Power. On the opposing side the power of Poseidon spills out to prevent our hero from going home which ends up in delay for seven years. These seven years were spent at Calypso’s island. After those seven years Odysseus is released from Calypso’s island, Poseidon goes crazy and due to his lack of gumption and pride for his failed work he hides from the possibility of being humiliated by other gods. Seeing Odysseus struggle the other gods decide to release Odysseus when Poseidon is away from Olympus. THat was a brief example of how Fate takes wholly upon Greek Mythology. It is sometimes perceived as free will yet is just plain old gods’

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