Fate: You Can't Escape It

I’m getting the feeling that Fate was important to ancient cultures.

We talked about it in our Norse conclusion. We’ve talked about both the Norse and the Greek Fates - three women who personified and ruled over the concept of Fate.

There are references to Fate everywhere you look in Greek mythology. Many Greek heroes are exposed to the elements as children and left to die - but they inevitably survive and go on to fulfill their destiny.

Prophecies in the Greek myths cannot be circumvented - what is foretold must come to pass. There’s a Greek play called Oedipus the King, in which Oedipus receives a prophecy that he will kill his father and sleep with his mother. Oedipus leaves his home to avoid this fate, not realizing that the people who raised him are not his birth parents - who he later unknowingly finds. His life unfolds just as the prophecy said it would, despite his efforts to stop it.

In my post about Zeus I talked a little bit about Danae. Her father, Acrisius, locks Danae up to prevent a prophecy that said her son would kill him. Despite all his precautions, Danae still gets impregnated by Zeus, and her son, Perseus, slays Acrisius.

These are only a few of the examples of Fate in the lives of mortals. However, just as in Norse mythology, Fate is not reserved for only humans. It also affects the gods.

Perhaps the most striking example of this can be found in the Iliad. The Greek pantheon favored heroes on both sides of the Trojan War, and occasionally intervened on their behalf. However, Homer also shows the gods watching a pivotal moment in the war - and doing nothing, despite their desire to act.

This moment is when Hector, champion of Troy, is abou to be slain by Achilles, hero of the Greeks. Zeus, knowing that Hector is fated to die, asks the gods to vote on whether or not they should save him - and is rebuked by Athena. The goddess of wisdom asks if Zeus is really considering saving a man whose Fate was decided long ago. She then says that Zeus could act if he really wants to, but that the other gods will not be a part of it.

Zeus immediately backpedals and says that he wasn’t actually thinking of defying fate...really!

I think what intrigues me the most about this is the fact that Athena stats that Zeus could act - implying that the gods can act against Fate. However, her refusal to be a part of it also seems to indicate that there would be consequences for challenging that which is meant to be.

All of these examples seem to show that the ancient Greeks believed in Fate, and that it played a major role in their lives. But what was that role? Was it a way of comforting them about their station in life? If one was a shepherd, that person was obviously fated to be a shepherd, so it was alright!

Or was it a control mechanism for the authorities? They were fated to rule, and you were fated to be a poor servant, and there was nothing you could do about it.

As with my post about the Norse view of Fate, I have no idea...but I would love to hear your thoughts! Please comment below or email me.

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas! On Friday I’ll be doing a special post for the holidays. Then, next Monday I’ll be posting a short modern adaptation of the Iliad. That will let us start the New Year with a new mythology - Japanese!

Stay tuned, and I’ll see you guys next post!

Fate: An Overarching Theme

Fate is an underlying theme throughout most of Norse mythology (yes, it is both overarching and underlying). Ragnarok is prophesized by Odin for ages before it happens. The Norns, whose name literally means “Fate”, spin the fate of the universe. Minor events in stories come to have huge consequences during Ragnarok.

There are two examples I can think of in modern pop culture that come close to how fate affected the Norse myths. The first is the book series The Dresden Files. Jim Butcher (the author) has done a masterful job of weaving plot threads together throughout the fifteen books currently in the series (there are another five planned.) A minor character in one book might become a huge villain six books later; a one-liner dropped early on in the series might foreshadow highly important events later in the series. This is what the Norse did when they wove their mythology; every little detail counts.

The second modern example is a season of a TV show. Take the second season of Arrow. A character shows up in the first couple of episodes, but seems unimportant. A minor bad guy who isn’t totally evil appears a couple of times. The main character gets a new love interest. Then, suddenly, the last episode comes upon you and BAM! you find out it’s all connected. The minor character tries to blow up the city, the somewhat villainous guy teams up with the heroes to stop her, the love interest turns out to have been working with the Big Bad all along...you needed all of the episodes before the finale to introduce the players, but it is only after the finale that you can look back and see how everything led up to the final event.

The same is true of Norse mythology. Many of the earlier myths set the stage for Ragnarok. We’ve talked in pervious posts about Hel and her banishment to Niflheim. This banishment made her queen of the dead - and during Ragnarok, she led an army of these dead against the gods. Without her banishment she would have had no army to give to Loki.

The story of the imprisonment of Hel’s brother, Fenrir, is another example. The gods tricked Fenrir by telling him he was so strong he could break any chains they put on him. Fenrir agreed to test this claim, provided that one of the gods, Tyr, put his hand in Fenrir’s mouth as collateral. If you read the post about Loki, you’ll remember that Fenrir is a giant wolf. Tyr bravely agreed, and the gods chained Fenrir with a magical set of links. When the wolf could not break free he bit off Tyr’s hand as revenge. During Ragnarok, Tyr is killed by Garm because he was weakened by the loss of his hand.

One last example is the death of the god Frey. Early on in the myths of Asgard, Frey traded his sword to be able to marry the woman he loved. With his sword he would have been able to defeat Surt, the fire giant, during Ragnarok - but without it he was crushed in battle, and Asgard fell.

All of these events led to the Doom of the gods, and all of these events were fated to happen. This shows that even the gods, infinitely more powerful than humans, are still subject to fate. Despite his foresight, Odin could do nothing to stop the events of Ragnarok. Despite all of his knowledge, he died as he had always known he would.

What, then, was the point of his foresight? If fate could not be changed, why warn others about Ragnarok? I don’t know, but it’s interesting to ponder. Was Odin’s knowledge of Ragnarok a tool used by Norse storytellers, designed to foreshadow coming events in a tale and keep their audience hooked? Or was it a cautionary tale to mankind? After all, if even the gods cannot fight fate, why should mankind bother to try?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, so please comment below or email me. For now I’m done with Norse mythology - next post I’ll start looking at the Greek myths. I’ll see you guys then!