Why so much grief for me?
No man will hurl me down to Death, against my fate.
And fate? No one alive has ever escaped it,
neither brave man nor coward, I tell you –
it’s born with us the day that we are born.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 6, lines 580-584. In his farewell to his wife, Hector speaks here about the ancient Greek idea of fate, believing that his life and death are controlled by it. He tells his wife Andromache not to be so upset or worried about him during the conflicts of war, saying that no man can kill him if he is not fated to die.