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The Harmony of Fixed Fate and Free Will in the Iliad

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2015

Edwin Wong
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Extract

Eberhard argues convincingly in his 1923 volume, Das Schicksal als poetische Idee bei Homer that fate is a narrative device in the Iliad and Odyssey which guides the narration towards resolution. As an example of fate at work, he cites the narrator harnessing fate to fulfil ‘what must happen’ when Zeus finds the deaths of Sarpedon and Hector difficult. Movement towards resolution, however, is not the only force motivating the narration. Achilles' vacillations between remaining or quitting pull the narration away from resolution: such episodes suggest the idea of an apparent freedom within fate. If Iliadic fate or free will were unwavering dogmatic notions, their coexistence would be problematic. But perhaps harmony between the two is possible when free will in the Iliad is—like Eberhard's conception of fate—a poetic or narrative device.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 36 , November 2002 , pp. 1 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2002

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