Fate and Free Will

The Theme in the Work

From the first line, the poem keeps two causes side by side. In Book I, the wrath of Achilles is one man's choice and, at the same time, the design of Zeus coming to pass, and the book shows that design being born in the plea of Thetis and in the nod that Zeus does not revoke. In Book II, the Dream that Zeus sends says that Agamemnon could take the city, and the king turns that could into certainty, without knowing what Zeus is preparing. The poet measures the risk of the rout with a word that means beyond destiny.

Men speak of destiny as someone who knows it only by half. In Book III, Priam says the fault lies with the gods and that only Zeus knows which of the two, Paris or Menelaus, death is destined for. In Book VI, Hector tells Andromache that he knows Troy will fall and, in the same scene, that no one has escaped fate after being born. In Book VII, Helenus assures him that it is not yet his fate to die, and Hector's heart pounds in his chest at the sight of Ajax. In Book IX, Achilles recounts what his mother told him: there are two destinies of death, glory without return or long life without glory.

Zeus weighs and Zeus announces. In Book VIII, he stretches out the golden scale and places in its pans the death lots of Trojans and Achaeans. In Book XII, Sarpedon tells Glaucus that the Keres are countless and that, since no one escapes them, what remains is to give or receive glory. In Book XIII, Eucenor sets out knowing, from the seer Polyidus, that he will die sick at home or at the hands of the Trojans, and he chooses the second. In Book XV, Zeus tells Hera the chain of events still missing, the death of Patroclus, that of Sarpedon, and that of Hector, and promises not to stop until the wish of Achilles is fulfilled.

The gods have a power that fate limits. In Book XVI, Zeus wants to snatch Sarpedon from his marked death, and Hera reminds him that the other gods will not approve, and he yields; the narrator says that Patroclus committed a great folly and, in the same passage, that Zeus loosed his spirit in his chest. In Book XIX, Agamemnon and Achilles attribute the quarrel to Zeus, Moira, and Ate, and the horse Xanthus warns Achilles that the day of ruin is near, and he replies that he already knows. In Book XX, Hera protects Achilles for today, saying that afterward he will suffer what fate spun for him, and Poseidon saves Aeneas because he is fated to escape and to reign. In Book XXI, Achilles, overwhelmed by the current, complains that his mother deceived him, and in Book XXII the scale of Zeus fixes the day of Hector after Athena reminds him that he has been destined for a long time.

The Iliad does not separate human action from the divine plan, and each scene chooses one of the two explanations without cancelling the other. The chain that Zeus announces in Book XV, Achilles sends Patroclus, Hector kills Patroclus, Achilles kills Hector, comes to pass through human choices that the god announces in advance: Patroclus decides to go to Achilles out of compassion for the wounded man, and Achilles decides on vengeance knowing its price. Two readings are possible for the scale of Book VIII and for that of Book XXII, and the text sustains both: it reveals a fate that already existed, or it makes visible a decision that Zeus has just taken. The interventions of the gods, for their part, spare someone whom fate still wants alive, Aeneas, Sarpedon for a while, and, in the case of Hector, Apollo snatches him from Achilles' hand in Book XX without the text saying that fate asks for it, and abandons him in Book XXII when the pan goes down.

Where It Appears

• Book I: The proem says that, while Achilles raged, the design of Zeus was being fulfilled, and the book shows the plan being born in Thetis's plea and in the nod that confirms it.
• Book II: Zeus sends Agamemnon a Dream that says he could take the city, and the king turns could into certainty without knowing what Zeus is preparing.
• Book III: Priam tells Helen that the fault is the gods', and, as he leaves the field, that only Zeus and the other gods know to which of the two death is destined.
• Book V: Athena gives Diomedes license to wound Aphrodite and, later, lifts the limit she had set, and the rule of what a mortal can do against a god changes by her decision.
• Book VI: Hector tells Andromache that he knows Troy will fall and, in the same scene, that no one escapes fate after being born, nor will he send him to Hades before his time.
• Book VII: Helenus assures Hector that it is not yet his fate to die, as he heard from the gods, and Hector offers himself to the duel, though his heart pounds in his chest before Ajax.
• Book VIII: Zeus weighs in a golden scale the death lots of Trojans and Achaeans, and the Achaeans' pan goes down, while Nestor says that no man holds the thought of Zeus.
• Book IX: Achilles says that his mother told him there are two destinies of death: staying at Troy with imperishable glory and no return, or going home with long life and no glory.
• Book XII: Sarpedon tells Glaucus that the Keres of death hang over both of them, countless, and that glory is what one can make of a death no one avoids.
• Book XIII: Eucenor sets out to war knowing, from the seer Polyidus, that he will die sick at home or by the Trojans beside the ships, and goes to meet the second death.
• Book XV: Zeus tells Hera the chain still missing, the death of Patroclus, of Sarpedon, and of Hector, and promises not to stop until Achilles' wish is fulfilled.
• Book XVI: Zeus wants to take Sarpedon from his marked death, but Hera reminds him that the other gods will not approve, and he yields; the narrator says that Zeus loosed the spirit of Patroclus in his chest.
• Book XIX: Agamemnon and Achilles attribute the quarrel to Zeus, Moira, and Ate, and the horse Xanthus warns Achilles that the day of ruin is near, and he replies that he already knows.
• Book XX: Hera protects Achilles for today, saying that afterward he will suffer what fate spun for him, and Poseidon saves Aeneas because he is fated to escape and to reign.
• Book XXI: Achilles, overwhelmed by the current, complains that his mother deceived him by saying he would die under the wall of Troy by the swift arrows of Apollo, and not be dragged away like a swineherd's boy.
• Book XXII: Zeus asks the gods whether to save Hector, Athena answers that he has been destined for a long time, and Zeus stretches out the golden scale, whose pan goes down on Hector's side.
• Book XXIV: Achilles tells Priam that two jars lie on the floor of Zeus, one of evils and another of goods, and that each mortal's lot comes from the mixture that he gives.

Passages

The poet measures the risk of the rout with a word that means beyond destiny.

Hector tells Andromache that he knows how the city will end.

Achilles recounts what his mother told him about the two destinies of death.

Zeus tells Hera the chain of deaths that runs from Achilles' emissary to Hector himself.

The narrator gives two causes for Patroclus's error: the word of Achilles forgotten and the spirit that Zeus loosed in him.

Achilles answers the horse that he already knows he will die far from home.

Athena voices what the other gods do not approve of, in answer to Zeus's wish to save Hector.

Hector's day sinks with the scale, and Apollo abandons him.

Achilles describes to Priam the two jars on the floor of Zeus.