The Odyssey Fate and Divine Intervention Quotes

Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns - Odyssey quote

Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy.
Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds,
many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea,
fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home.
But he could not save them from disaster, hard as he strove –
the recklessness of their own ways destroyed them all,
the blind fools, they devoured the cattle of the Sun
and the Sungod blotted out the day of their return.
Launch out on his story, Muse, daughter of Zeus,
start from where you will – sing for our time too.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 1-12. These are the opening words to Homer’s masterpiece, The Odyssey, one of the most important and enduring works of Western literature. We get a brief synopsis of the story of the epic poem. It chronicles the long journey home of Odysseus, after his time spent fighting in the Trojan War. There is much foreshadowing in the passage. We learn that Odysseus is driven off course many times on his perilous voyage home. He also tries to bring home his comrades, but fails. They are killed by the god Helios for their reckless action in consuming his cattle. At the beginning of the poem the narrator invokes the Muse – the Muses were ancient Greece’s goddesses of literature, science and the arts. The poet asks the Muse for inspiration to learn about the "man of twists and turns" and his arduous journey home. Written in the late 8th or 9th century BC, The Odyssey remains one of the all-time greatest quest stories.

"Ah how shameless – the way these mortals blame the gods.
From us alone, they say, come all their miseries, yes,
but they themselves, with their own reckless ways,
compound their pains beyond their proper share."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 37-40. Zeus is at an assembly of the gods on Olympus, considering the lives of Odysseus and his son Telemachus and whether to intervene in Odysseus’ troubles. Commenting on the relationship between gods and humans, he recalls the case of Aegisthus. He ignored a warning by the messenger of the gods Hermes, seduced Agamemnon’s wife Clytemnestra and then with her help murdered Agamemnon. Zeus is saying that humans tend to blame the gods for their miseries, but humans are at fault by making their own lives a misery through reckless behavior. In other words bad happens to those who deserve it.

"But my heart breaks for Odysseus,
that seasoned veteran cursed by fate so long –
far from his loved ones still, he suffers torments
off on a wave-washed island rising at the center of the seas.
…Atlas’ daughter it is who holds Odysseus captive,
luckless man – despite his tears, forever trying
to spellbind his heart with suave, seductive words
and wipe all thought of Ithaca from his mind."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 57-60, 65-68. There is a strong theme of homecoming in The Odyssey, with Odysseus on a long, perious journey home after the end of the Trojan War. In this passage Athena, who has a special relationship with Odysseus, pleads with Zeus to allow the "cursed by fate" hero home. She says that he is being held captive on an island by the goddess Calypso, who is trying to wipe out all thoughts of his homeland. Calypso is portrayed in The Odyssey as embodying the feminine powers of seduction, manipulative language and beauty and using these to keep Odysseus on her island. Athena on the other hand employs her considerable power at a meeting of the gods to help Odysseus and persuade Zeus to allow him return home.

"And now for his blinded son the earthquake god –
though he won’t quite kill Odysseus –
drives him far off course from native land.
But come, all of us here put heads together now,
work out his journey home so Odysseus can return.
Lord Poseidon, I trust, will let his anger go.
How can he stand his ground against the will
of all the gods at once – one god alone?"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 88-95. The fate of Odysseus is being controlled by a vengeful Poseidon, angered at the blinding of his son, Zeus acknowledges. The father of the gods decides to intervene to allow Odysseus to return home.
Athena in The Odyssey

"While I myself go down to Ithaca, rouse his son
to a braver pitch, inspire his heart with courage
to summon the flowing-haired Achaeans to full assembly,
speak his mind to all those suitors, slaughtering on and on
his droves of sheep and shambling longhorn cattle.
Next I will send him off to Sparta and sandy Pylos,
there to learn of his dear father’s journey home.
Perhaps he will hear some news and make his name
throughout the mortal world."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 104-112. Young Telemachus needs courage to confront Penelope’s greedy suitors who feast on his animals, and to go on a journey to find his father. In this passage Athena announces that she will travel to Ithaca to persuade Telemachus to do these very things.

"once this house was rich, no doubt, beyond reproach
when the man you mentioned still lived here, at home.
Now the gods have reversed our fortunes with a vengeance –
wiped that man from the earth like no one else before."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 270-273. Telemachus confides his troubles to Athena. He laments how the gods have reversed the fortunes of their once rich house and wiped the man of the house from the face of the earth. The fate of humans and divine intervention are major themes in The Odyssey.

"But you, I urge you,
think how to drive these suitors from your halls.
Come now, listen closely. Take my words to heart.
At daybreak summon the island’s lords to full assembly,
give your orders to all and call the gods to witness:
tell the suitors to scatter, each to his own place."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 311-316. Athena comes to the aid of the young, immature and inexperienced Telemachus. She gives him the confidence and strength needed to stand up for the family’s estate and to the suitors who abuse it.

"You must not cling to your boyhood any longer –
it’s time you were a man. Haven’t you heard
what glory Prince Orestes won throughout the world
when he killed that cunning, murderous Aegisthus,
who’d killed his famous father?
And you, my friend –
how tall and handsome I see you now – be brave, you too,
so men to come will sing your praises down the years."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 341-347. Athena is trying to inspire young Telemachus with the courage to go and search for news about his long-lost father. She wants the boy to become a man through action and by taking on responsibility. She is basically telling Telemachus to grow up and take charge, citing as an example Orestes, who gained glory by killing Aegisthus for having murdered Orestes’ father Agamemnon. Athena says that Telemachus too will win glory if he shows bravery.

"Why, mother,"
poised Telemachus put in sharply, "why deny
our devoted bard the chance to entertain us
any way the spirit stirs him on?
Bards are not to blame –
Zeus is to blame. He deals to each and every
laborer on this earth whatever doom he pleases.
Why fault the bard if he sings the Argives’ harsh fate?"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 397-403. When Penelope asks Phemius to stop singing about the Achaeans and the Trojan War, Telemachus jumps in to challenge this. The Bard is not to blame for the cruel fates of those who went to war, he asserts, but Zeus is. In The Odyssey the gods are credited with causing a lot of the misfortunes of humans.

"But I’ll cry out to the everlasting gods in hopes
that Zeus will pay you back with a vengeance – all of you
destroyed in my house while I go scot-free myself!"
And to seal his prayer, farseeing Zeus sent down a sign.
He launched two eagles soaring high from a mountain ridge
and down they glided, borne on the wind’s draft a moment,
wing to wingtip, pinions straining taut till just
above the assembly’s throbbing hum they whirled,
suddenly, wings thrashing, wild onslaught of wings
and banking down at the crowd’s heads – a glaring, fatal sign –
talons slashing each other, tearing cheeks and throats
they swooped away on the right through homes and city."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 2, lines 161-172. The theme of the gods intervening in the affairs of humans is illustrated here. Telemachus prays to Zeus to pay the suitors back for their behavior. Immediately the father of the gods answers his prayer with a "fatal" omen, sending down two fighting eagles tearing at each other over the heads of the crowd. This foreshadows that the suitors will pay the supreme penalty for their crimes. Telemachus demonstrates his courage in standing up to the suitors.

"Dear god, hear me! Yesterday you came to my house,
you told me to ship out on the misty sea and learn
if father, gone so long, is ever coming home…
Look how my countrymen – the suitors most of all,
the pernicious bullies – foil each move I make."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 2, lines 295-299. As he walks along the beach alone, a frustrated Telemachus prays to Athena for help in dealing with the bullying suitors. The young prince is still not fully confident in himself, especially on taking on the role of his father as head of the household.

"Telemachus, no more shyness, this is not the time!
We sailed the seas for this, for news of your father –
where does he lie buried? what fate did he meet?
So go right up to Nestor, breaker of horses.
We’ll make him yield the secrets of his heart.
Press him yourself to tell the whole truth:
he’ll never lie – the man is far too wise."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 3, lines 16-22. Athena has been trying to give Telemachus a crash course in courage and maturity. She continues it here, as she deals with the young prince’s shyness about approaching King Nestor and speaking to him.

"Telemachus,"
the bright-eyed goddess Athena reassured him,
"some of the words you’ll find within yourself,
the rest some power will inspire you to say.
You least of all – I know –
were born and reared without the gods’ good will."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 3, lines 27-32. Athena offers words of encouragement to the shy Telemachus, who is concerned that his powers of speech and eloquence may not be up to addressing an older man of the stature of King Nestor. Telemachus wants to ask the king about his missing father Odysseus. The Odyssey, as well as being about the journey of the wandering Odysseus, is also a coming-of-age story about his son, growing up in a royal household without a father and trying to find his way in the world. That journey to manhood he is now learning to make – with Athena’s help.

"Nine years we wove a web of disaster for those Trojans,
pressing them hard with every tactic known to man,
and only after we slaved did Zeus award us victory.
And no one there could hope to rival Odysseus,
not for sheer cunning –
at every twist of strategy he excelled us all."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 3, lines 131-136. Using a metaphor, Nestor compares the siege of Troy by the Greeks to a spider weaving a web. He attributes the Greeks’ eventual and hard-won victory to the will of Zeus, but also to the cunning of Odysseus.

"it meant no joy to Agamemnon, not at all.
He meant to detain us there and offer victims,
anything to appease Athena’s dreadful wrath –
poor fool, he never dreamed Athena would not comply.
The minds of the everlasting gods don’t change so quickly."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 3, lines 159-163. Nestor is speaking of how Athena created a feud between the brothers Menelaus and Agamemnon after the fall of Troy. Menelaus wanted to return home immediately, but Agamemnon wanted to stay and sacrifice to Athena. Nestor calls Menelaus a "fool," saying that it is not easy to change the fate that the gods decide for you.

"If only
the bright-eyed goddess chose to love you just
as she lavished care on brave Odysseus, years ago
in the land of Troy where we Achaeans struggled!
I’ve never seen the immortals show so much affection
as Pallas openly showed him, standing by your father –
if only she’d favor you, tend you with all her heart,
many a suitor then would lose all thought of marriage,
blotted out forever."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 3, lines 247-255. Nestor’s words to Telemachus, wishing that Athena loved and helped him as much as she did Odysseus, are ironic. For the reader is aware that the goddess cares very much for Telemachus and his father and is dedicated to helping them both.

With that the bright-eyed goddess winged away
in an eagle’s form and flight.
Amazement fell on all the Achaeans there.
The old king, astonished by what he’d seen,
grasped Telemachus’ hand and cried out to the prince,
"Dear boy – never fear you’ll be a coward or defenseless,
not if at your young age the gods will guard you so.
Of all who dwell on Olympus, this was none but she,
Zeus’s daughter, the glorious one, his third born,
who prized your gallant father among the Argives."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 3, lines 415-424. Athena, disguised as Mentor, reveals herself when she turns into an eagle and flies away. Amazed at what he has seen, King Nestor tells Telemachus that this was none other than Athena who will protect him just as she prized his father Odysseus. So the young son of Odysseus gets the official stamp of approval from the gods.

"Eidothea, now,
had slipped beneath the sea’s engulfing folds
but back from the waves she came with four sealskins,
all freshly stripped, to deceive her father blind.
She scooped out lurking-places deep in the sand
and sat there waiting as we approached her post,
then couching us side-by-side she flung a sealskin
over each man’s back. Now there was an ambush
that would have overpowered us all – overpowering,
true, the awful reek of all those sea-fed brutes!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 4, lines 487-497. Menelaus tells Telemachus how he and his men were trapped in Egypt and were helped by sea goddess Eidothea, daughter of the sea god Proteus. Proteus had information on how they could get home and they were advised by Eidothea to disguise themselves as seals to ambush him.

"Ajax, now, went down with his long-oared fleet.
First Poseidon drove him onto the cliffs of Gyrae,
looming cliffs, then saved him from the breakers
he’d have escaped his doom, too, despite Athena’s hate,
if he hadn’t flung that brazen boast, the mad blind fool.
‘In the teeth of the gods,’ he bragged, ‘I have escaped
the ocean’s sheer abyss!’ Poseidon heard that frantic vaunt
and the god grasped his trident in both his massive hands
and struck the Gyraean headland, hacked the rock in two,
and the giant stump stood fast but the jagged spur
where Ajax perched at first, the raving madman –
toppling into the sea, it plunged him down, down
in the vast, seething depths. And so he died,
having drunk his fill of brine."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 4, lines 560-573. Proteus the sea god and seer speaks to Menelaus about the death of Little Ajax (also known as Ajax the Lesser). We hear how Ajax was doomed by his excessive pride. He angered Poseidon with his boast "in the teeth of the gods…I have escaped the ocean’s sheer abyss." So the god of the sea drowned him for his hubris. Proteus’ story refers to Little Ajax, son of Oileus, not to be confused with Telamon’s son, Great Ajax, who killed himself after the fall of Troy. The story goes that Little Ajax tried to rape King Priam’s daughter Cassandra in the temple of Athena, where she took refuge. When the Achaeans failed to punish him, Athena had wind storms blow him off course on his way home. Having almost reached home, Poseidon killed Little Ajax.

"But about your own destiny, Menelaus,
dear to Zeus, it’s not for you to die
and meet your fate in the stallion-land of Argos,
no, the deathless ones will sweep you off to the world’s end,
the Elysian Fields, where gold-haired Rhadamanthys waits
where life glides on in immortal ease for mortal man;
no snow, no winter onslaught, never a downpour there,
but night and day the Ocean River sends up breezes,
singing winds of the West refreshing all mankind.
All this because you are Helen’s husband now
the gods count you the son-in-law of Zeus."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 4, lines 631-641. Proteus, the prophetic shape shifting sea god, tells Menelaus that he will not die and end up a shade in Hades. Instead he is fated to live eternity in the heavenly Eylsian Fields – because he is dear to Zeus and is husband of Zeus’ daughter Helen. In Greek mythology the Elysian Fields are the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and virtuous.

Medon, the soul of thoughtfulness, responded,
"I don’t know if a god inspired your son
or the boy’s own impulse led him down to Pylos,
but he went to learn of his father’s journey home,
or whatever fate he’s met."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 4, lines 801-805. Court herald Medon tells Penelope of her son Telemachus’ journey to Pylos and Lacedaemon to find out what happened to Odysseus on his journey home from Troy. He suggests that the trip may have been inspired by a god – it was actually goddess Athena.
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