Chapter 4: Fate vs. Free will: Does man control his own destiny?

As a counselor, the question that I am often faced with deals with the paradox between

fate and free will. Does man really control his own destiny, or are there greater forces at work?

While no definitive answer exists, the adventures of Odysseus and his crew seem to support the

idea that man does not control his own destiny.

During Odysseus and his crew’s adventures, they are faced with prophecy after

prophecy. These prophecies directly represent fate and drive the outcomes of Odysseus and

his crew’s lives. After Odysseus and his crew manage to escape from the Cyclops’s island, the

Cyclops is furious because his eye has been blinded by Odysseus. Odysseus also unwisely

reveals his real name to the Cyclops in an attempted act of defiance. The Cyclops, infuriated,

says the following prayer to Lord Poseidon: “Hear me, Poseidon Earthholder Seabluehair! If I

am truly thy son, and thou art indeed my father, grant that Odysseus the conqueror of Troy –

the son of Laertes – whose address is in Ithaca, may never reach his home! But if it is his due

portion to see his friends and come again to his tall house and his native land, may he come

there late and in misery, in another man’s ship, may he lose all his companions, and may he find

tribulation at home!” (111). Poseidon hears the Cyclops’s prayer, and at that moment, the

prayer now becomes the driving force behind Odysseus and his crew’s fate. Odysseus starts to

lose his companions as soon as he arrives at the island of Lamos. His men insult Laistrygonian

Antiphates’s wife who is “as big as the peak of a mountain” (114). As a result, the giant

Laistrygonians massacre Odysseus’s crew while Odysseus manages to quickly escape with the

rest of his crew on his ship. Next, toward the end of the crew’s stay on the island of Aiaia,
another companion is lost in the form of Elpenor as he, in a drunken stupor, jumps off Circe’s

roof and dies. The men continue on their journey, but alas, once they encounter Charybdis and

Scylla, the inevitable occurs. At the same moment that Charybdis spouted out the sea water,

Scylla grabs 6 of Odysseus’s strongest men and eats them. Odysseus’s men are dropping like

flies! All of Odysseus’s remaining crewmembers are killed by Zeus’s lightning bolt which strikes

their bolt as the crew is leaving Helios’s Island. So, the prophecy that Odysseus to “lose all his

companions” has now been fulfilled. In addition, when Zeus’s lightning bolt killed all of

Odysseus’s crewmembers, Odysseus’s ship is also destroyed. Since Odysseus’s ship is

destroyed, he would have to find a new ship to return home in, therefore fulfilling the prophecy

that he will have to arrive home “in another man’s ship.” Also, though Odysseus is not yet

aware, he will have a serious problem when he arrives home, as Telemachos had dictated to

the Council previously: “My mother is besieged by those who would marry her against her will,

own sons to those men who are chief among you here; they will not go near her father’s house,

and lay a formal proposal before Icarios – the thought makes them shiver! – for then he might

collect the bridal gifts for his daughter, and give her to the man of his choice, the one he likes

best. No! it is our house they visit regularly every day, kill our cattle and sheep and fat goats,

hold high revel and drink my sparkling wine, quite reckless: that is the way it all goes” (23). All

of the suitors at his house will truly be a frustration to Odysseus since he will have to dispose of

them once he returns home. As can be seen, Odysseus and his crew’s fates were directly

controlled and fulfilled by Poseidon, and nothing that they could have done could have changed

their fate. In other words, you just have to accept the fact that once your fate is set, you can’t
change your fate. So, you can’t beat yourself up about the ensuing actions since they are out of

your control.

Once man makes the decision to defy directions, he surrenders his fate to the negative

outcomes previously explicated. After Odysseus and his crew arrive at Hades, they speak to

Teiresias the Seer. Teiresias explains that Odysseus and his crew will have to make a stop on

Thrinicia, the land of the cattle and sheep of Helios. Teiresias makes his warning to the men

that “But if you do [the cattle] hurt, then I foretell the destruction for your ship and crew; and if

you can escape it yourself, you will arrive late and miserable, all your companions lost, in the

ship of a stranger. You will find trouble in your house, proud blustering men who devour your

substance and plague your wife to marry and offer their bridal gifts” (126). So, at this point, the

men still have control over their own destiny. However, once the men arrived at Thrinicia and

the South Wind didn’t change direction for a month, the men were worried that they were

going to starve. Eurylochos tells them that dying of starvation is the worst death of and that

they should eat the cattle. The men immediately agree and “They wasted no time, but drove

off the best of the cattle of Helios close by, for the fine beasts with their wide foreheads and

crumpled horns used to gaze not far off” (145). As soon as the men choose to defy Teiresias’s

warning, they submit to the consequences. Unbeknownst to the men, a messenger finds out of

the crew’s actions and tells Helios Hyperion, and he is greatly angered. He yells to the gods that

Odysseus and his crew need to compensate him for his loss or he will try to kill them. In return,

Zeus promises to Helios that “I will soon strike the ship with a thunderbolt, and smash it into

smithereens in the middle of the sea!” (145). Well, Odysseus’s crew feasts on the cattle for six

days, and starts sailing on the seventh day. Once they were far away from the island, “Cronion
brought a black cloud over our ship and darkened the deep. Then she did not run long, for

suddenly came the west wind screeching and blowing with a furious tempest, the ale broke

both the forestays […] The men were cast out, there they were bobbing up and down on the

waves like so many crows. So God ended the homeward voyage for them” (146). Zeus stayed

true to his word and even though Odysseus survived, none of the rest of his crew or his ship

survived, as was prophesized. But, by this point, the men should have realized that their death

was inevitable since they blatantly disobeyed Teiresias’s warning. As aforementioned, the rest

of Teiresias’s prophecy is also true regarding all of the suitors harassing Penelope, his wife.

These events further my conclusion that man does not control his own destiny, and he

who believes that he does control his own destiny is brought to ruin. You can’t fight something

that is “meant to be,” because that would go against the will of the gods, and the gods always

have the final say. Disobeying them never ends favorable. While you might feel slightly

powerless, just know that the gods do respect those who behave and follow the directions.

That much of your fate you can control, though your overall destiny was determined years

before you were actually born.