Destiny, Fate and Free Will in Homers Odyssey Essay

Destiny, Fate and Free Will in Homers Odyssey Fate seems to defy humanity at every turn. A man may have his life planned out to the last second, but then some random force intervenes and he dies the second after he has completed his life plan. Some believe in fate, believing that our lives are predetermined from the moment we are born. Other people believe that everything is random, the result of some god rolling the dice in a universal poker game. Still other people believe that each and every person is in total control of his or her destiny, every step of the way. Who is to say which viewpoint is false? Every culture has a unique perception of the role of fate in our lives, and no group has the right answer, simply a†¦show more content†¦In this essay, I will examine popular Greek ideas concerning fate and their relationship to characters in Homers Odyssey. Greek cultures ideas on fate manifested themselves largely through their mythology. The length of a persons life, they believed, was determined by the three Fates, Clotho (spinner), Lachesus (Apportioner), and the fearsome Atropos (Inflexible). These aged children of Zeus and Themis-- know to the Greeks at the Moirai--would unscrupulously spin out, measure, and cut the thread of ones life. The balance of power between these three women and their father Zeus is difficult to understand. In Book XXVI of The Iliad, we see the king of the gods fretting over the impending death of his mortal son Sarpedon. Unable to cope with the idea of his noble childs death, Zeus inquires of Hera Shall I pluck [Sarpedon] up, now, while hes still alive... or beat him down at Patroclus hands at last (Iliad 16.519-21). In the end, Zeus allows Sarpedon to be slain as the Fates have willed. Though Zeus has the power to override his daughters, the great orderer of the cosmos sees that doing so in this c ase would be beyond reason. Other Greek traditions hold that there was once a Golden Age during which men knew their fate and lived free from want. This dream world was crushed, however, when Prometheus gave fire to man andShow MoreRelated Destiny, Fate and Free Will in Homers Odyssey - Test for Destiny1259 Words   |  6 Pages The Odyssey:nbsp; The Test for Destiny Throughout The Odyssey man is continually being tested to determine his destiny. He is tested for loyalty, determination, and valor. Odysseus along with many other characters have to conquer these values to determine their destiny. For example Odysseus is tested for loyalty to Penelope while out at sea. Then tested for his determination to get home. At times he was doubtful, but he never gave up. And lastly he was tested for his valor. He fought many battlesRead More Destiny, Fate and Free Will in Homers Odyssey - Guidance and Loyalty1355 Words   |  6 PagesGuidance, Fate, and Loyalty in The Odyssey nbsp; The Odyssey is an epic poem about a journey. After the Trojan War is won Odysseus leaves Troy for his home in Ithaca. However, the gods decide to test his courage and resolve and send him on a twenty-year odyssey. Odysseus courage is constantly tested as he struggles with the many obstacles the gods place before him. Although Homer depicted The Odyssey as a self-reliant journey, in reality the gods and other mortals guide Odysseus. It is hisRead More Destiny, Fate and Free Will in Homers Odyssey - Odysseus’s Fulfills His Destiny1472 Words   |  6 Pages Odysseus’s Fulfills his Destiny in The Odyssey During Odysseus’s journey in The Odyssey, his own guile, the gods’ obstacles and their assistance for him affected his destiny. Odysseus uses his crafty sense of trickery and guile to get out of situations, which allow him to reach his destiny of returning home. Many times in The Odyssey the gods who dislike Odysseus set obstacles to try to stop him from returning home. However, there are gods who favor him and give him assistance to reach his homelandRead MoreFree Will : Ancient Literature1536 Words   |  7 PagesConcept of Free Will: Ancient Literature in the West Free will is considered to be a philosophical term for a course of action among many possible options. It is a topic that almost every philosopher has debated for over two millennia. â€Å"Free will is defined as the ability to select a course of action as a means of fulfilling some desire† (O’Connor, 2002). Many philosophers think that free will is closely associated with moral responsibility as well as freedom of action. Free will is a human necessityRead MoreEssay about Free Will and Fate in the Odyssey1574 Words   |  7 PagesHomer’s View of Free Will and Fate in the Odyssey Free will and fate are both prominent in the Odyssey. In the Odyssey, free will is depicted whenever characters make decisions. In example, Odysseus blinds the Cyclops, Polyphemus. Fate, in the Odyssey, is the consequences that are dealt out due to certain actions. In the case of Odysseus and Polyphemus, the consequence is that when Odysseus is on a ship heading home to reach Ithaca, Poseidon, being the father of Polyphemus, sends a storm atRead MoreOdysseus Fate Vs Fate Essay1414 Words   |  6 Pages Does a man have free will? Can he control his own fate, or is it influenced, or perhaps even preordained, by an immortal power? Time and time again this question has been asked and explored in literary pieces that involve an element of a supernatural being, a higher power that mortal man cannot compare to. Among those who incorporate this existential reflection into their own written world is Homer, an ancient Greek poet, creator of the Odyssey. Throughout his epic, Homer demonst rates the simultaneousRead More Odysseus’ Search for Purpose in Homers Odyssey Essay1419 Words   |  6 PagesPurpose in The Odyssey   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As a wayfarer in life, The Odyssey focuses on life’s greater purpose through the fulfillment of destiny, perseverance, and loyalty. These three themes recur continuously throughout Odysseus’ journey, molding life’s greater vision. Odysseus comes to understand his purpose in life by remaining true to these major themes as he faces and conquers each obstacle in his journey. The overarching theme of The Odyssey is the belief that man cannot escape the destiny which hasRead MoreControlling Destiny : The Odyssey And Medea1555 Words   |  7 PagesControlling Destiny in The Odyssey and Medea In ancient Greek literature, fate is defined as the course a person’s life will take that is predetermined and can’t be changed by mortals or even the gods, and destiny is the outcomes that will ultimately be produced by one’s actions, social status, character, etc. Homer’s The Odyssey and Euripides’ Medea portrays their protagonists on a quest to reach their fate, but they first must take their destiny into their own hands in order to achieve this goalRead MoreEssay on Odysseus as Pawn of the Gods in Homers Odyssey1663 Words   |  7 PagesOdysseus as Pawn of the Gods in The Odyssey   Ã‚   Throughout literature characters have relied upon entities greater then themselves to furnish them with aid as they meet the many challenges they must face. The Odyssey is a tale of Odysseus’ epic journey and the many obstacles that bar his return home. But Odysseus is not alone in this struggle and receives aid from many gods, especially the clear-eyed goddess Athena. There are times when Odysseus beseeches the gods for aid, but other times heRead MoreCan’t Change Fate Essay1709 Words   |  7 PagesOdysseus, the main character in Homer’s â€Å"The Odyssey†, uses his brain more than his strength when he is faced with an obstacle. Odysseus is known as a man of â€Å"twists and turns†; his supreme physical strength is secondary to the strength of his mind in â€Å"The Odyssey†. Throughout the story, Odysseus relies on his smarts, rather than strength to overcome each obstacle. He has the essential qualities of a Heroic leader such as being brave, strong, noble, mighty, but instead his intelligence makes Odysseus

The Assasiantion of Julius Caesar - 862 Words

It was a hot, summer day in Italy; the year was 25 B.C. The Roman Empire had never been in such an age of peace and prosperity. I walked the streets of Rome without a care in the world. I was completely unaware that a life changing event was about to occur. I stopped dead in my tracks because right in front of me stood a man, his name was Augustus. I was in such disbelief that the first Emperor of the Roman Empire was standing before me. A whirlwind of thoughts and emotions was swirling through my mind. I had only ever dreamed about this moment. I had so many questions to ask him, but very little time. At any given moment, my one and only chance to speak to Augustus could have been snatched away from me. I decided that I could not let that happen. Right then and there, I asked him for an interview. To my immediate surprise, he agreed. The very first topic I addressed was the assassination of his great-uncle, Julius Caesar. I was concerned with how he would react to the topic, but he responded with ease. I asked him what his initial reaction was to hearing the news about Julius Caesar’s assassination. I could tell he had to really think about his answer. Augustus: â€Å"My initial reaction was shock, however, after the news had sunk in, all I could think about was revenge. I was adopted as his son and heir ; therefore, I knew that I was needed. Since I was training in Albania at the time, I immediately traveled to Rome. I was only eighteen, at the time.† Katelyn S. Historian:

Strategic Management Analysis Apple Inc

Question: Discuss about theStrategic Management Analysisfor Apple Inc. Answer: Introduction The development of the technology had implemented the foundation of latest methods and tools for the implication of the strategies and formation of smart operational systems (Hill et al., 2014). The business organizations have been using the strategic management and technological development simultaneously for assisting them in their operations. The various functions and strategies had been implemented and managed by the managers of the organizations. The following report had highlighted the development of the strategic management and its role in the development of the operations of the organizations. The organization selected for the analysis is Apple Inc. The report would provide an insight on the sales goal and objectives of the organizations. Apple Inc would also be critically evaluated from the competitive factors of the organization. The study would reflect the strategic alignment and of companys goals and objectives. Overview of the Selected Organization The Apple Inc is best known all over the world for its computer devices and mobile phones. The Macintosh is a personal computer line that had been largely sold all over the world. The company is based in America and the CEO of the company is Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne had founded the company in the year 1976 (Apple Info Apple, 2017). Apple had formed a brand reputation over the years. The non-users of Apple products often blame the device for being overpriced. The various products and services of Apple Inc include the I-phone, I-pad, Mac OS X, iTunes, and iPod. Sales Goal and Objectives of Apple Apple has become one of the most recognized global companies in the current time due to its business goals and objectives (Apple, 2017). The sales goal of the company include delighting the customers, focus of finding solutions to the customers problem, and recruiting right people. Apple has been focusing on the customers problem instead of selling their products. The company makes loyal customers by providing them with best of services and the customers buy their products themselves. The company had never pushed selling its products. All it had to do was to provide right people to serve the customers. The objectives of the company are to build a relationship with the customers by extending the minutest details for customer services, gaining loyalty from customers, and reaching to newer people by market extension (Rothaermel, 2015). The good design, attractive products, and clever marketing are helpful for attaining the objectives of the organization. Competitive Analysis of Apple The porters five forces can be used for analysis of the competitive analysis of Apple. The model of porters five forces has been shown below: Figure 1: Porters Five Forces Model (Source: E. Dobbs, 2014, pp-43) The porters five forces can be used for explaining the competitive analysis of Apple Inc. According to Fiorani, Cavicchi and Angelini, (2016), the porters five forces model for analysis of Apples competitors consists of bargaining power of customers, threat of new entrants, threat of rivalry, bargaining power of suppliers, and threat of substitute products. Bargaining power of customers: The bargaining power of customers is medium in case of Apple. The company supports the focus on customers and their needs. Hence the bargaining power of the customers is moderate. Threat of new Entrants: Apple has been holding a weak spot for the customers and its customers have been loyal to the brand. The threat of new entrants is really low as the company has its own operating system, design and features have made the product unique. Threat of Rivalry: Apple products are par from excellence and the OS X platform used by the devices is the most secure platform. Hence, the company does not have any immediate threat from rivals. However, the growth of demand of Android devices had brought some considerations for Apple. Bargaining power of suppliers: The suppliers of Apple have high power of bargaining. The companys technology and even components are very different from any other company. Hence, it is important for keeping the suppliers intact and loyal to the company. Threat of substitute products: There is no substitute for the Apple devices and services available. Hence the company has low probability of threat for substitution due to absence of its substitute. The competitors of Apple include Dell, Hewlett Packard, Toshiba, Gateway, Allienware, Cisco and Netgear,Blackberry, and Samsung in the field of personal computers, networking, and mobile phones. Strategic Alignment of Goals and Objectives at Apple The strategic alignment of the goals and objectives of Apple has been done for improving the operations of the company and forming a compact structure of operations (Hill et al., 2014). The goals of Apple include delighting the customers, focus of finding solutions to the customers problem, and recruiting right people. The objectives of the company consist of building a relationship with the customers, processing the minute details of the requirements, gaining loyalty from customers, and extension of the market capture (Rothaermel, 2015). The alignment of the goals and objectives had resulted in bringing out the following features of the operations of Apple, Customer centric operations and development Making brand recognition by providing unparallel services Extension of sales market operations to Global operations Effective training and recruitments Benefits of Data Management at Apple Apple had seen a massive increment of the customers and it has resulted in increasing the overall data input in the company (Ethiraj, Gambardella Helfat, 2016). The data management had been helpful for making the data stacked concisely and effectively. The overall benefits of data management at Apple are: Scalable data: The data management had been helpful for managing the increased quantity of data at Apple (Xiaofeng Xiang, 2013). The growth of operations to global scale had resulted in increasing the data quantity that needs to be managed in uniform stack for ease of access. Adaptability of changes: The data management had been helpful for adapting any change in data stored at Apple. The employment of the adaptability functions had caused the database to adopt any change required in the processes. Reduction of errors: The data management had been helpful for managing and avoiding the errors that may be faced during the operations of the system. Importance of Web2 and Web3 Technologies Web2 technologies were founded in the year 2004 and it included the functions of interaction and collaboration (Huang, Chen Mo, 2015). The users can contribute to the modification of the contents of the web such as in Social sites, quizzes, and Wikis. The social sites have become the most prominent place on Internet to promote their products and services. The quizzes and social media conversation had been helpful for knowing the customers requirements and getting their feedbacks. Web3 technologies had been formed with the development of the web based interactions and technology (Tanaka et al., 2014). The examples of such technologies include online games, machine learning, and artificial intelligence and it has been helpful for delivering the relevant contents to the users. The development of artificial intelligence has helped in developing SIRI in Apple devices. The AI has been helpful for the users to operate the device with assistance from the machine. Threats of Apple According to Volk et al., (2015), the threats to Apple Inc are the emergence of Chinese devices, growth of Android devices, decrease in overall sales, and high security demands. Chinese Phone companies: Chinese phone companies such as Xiaomi and Huawei have seen considerable growth of the sales. The devices have being sold on larger scale in competition to Apple devices. Android devices: The increase of demand of Android devices has also resulted in decreasing the sales of IOS devices. The demand of the android has overcome the requirement of IOS devices. Decrease in overall sales: The Company has seen the decrement of the overall sales by 7.6% from the last year and it was due to the increased demand of Android phones and Chinese devices. Conclusion It can be concluded from the report that the Apple devices have deployed strategic management for the operations of their company. The increase of the overall functions and improvement of operations had been formed with the deployment and alignment of the sales goals and objectives. Apple had seen many benefits of data management and some of them have been highlighted in the report such as scalable data, adaptability of changes, and reduction of errors. It has be also evident from the report that Web2 and Web3 technologies had been formed with the development of the web based interactions and technology. The overall function of strategic management was to develop a smooth and controllable environment for assisting them in the improvement of their operations. References Apple Info - Apple. (2017).Apple.com. Retrieved 20 February 2017, from https://www.apple.com/about/ Apple. (2017).Apple. Retrieved 20 February 2017, from https://www.apple.com/ Barney, J. B., Hesterly, W. (2015).Strategic management and competitive advantage concepts and cases. Pearson. Dobbs, M. (2014). Guidelines for applying Porter's five forces framework: a set of industry analysis templates.Competitiveness Review,24(1), 32-45. Ethiraj, S. K., Gambardella, A., Helfat, C. E. (2016). Replication in strategic management.Strategic Management Journal,37(11), 2191-2192. Fiorani, G., Cavicchi, A., Angelini, E. C. (2016). Strategic perspectives on Made in Italy: an exploratory market analysis of professional espresso coffee machines according to Porter's five competitive forces.Economia agro-alimentare/Food Economy,18(1). Hill, C. W., Jones, G. R., Schilling, M. A. (2014).Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning. Huang, Y. M., Chen, M. Y., Mo, S. S. (2015). How do we inspire people to contact aboriginal culture with Web2. 0 technology?.Computers Education,86, 71-83. Rothaermel, F. T. (2015).Strategic management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Tanaka, K., Aoki-Kinoshita, K. F., Kotera, M., Sawaki, H., Tsuchiya, S., Fujita, N., ... Narimatsu, H. (2014). WURCS: the Web3 unique representation of carbohydrate structures.Journal of chemical information and modeling,54(6), 1558-1566. Volk, G. M., Chao, C. T., Norelli, J., Brown, S. K., Fazio, G., Peace, C., ... Bretting, P. (2015). The vulnerability of US apple (Malus) genetic resources.Genetic resources and crop evolution,62(5), 765-794. Xiaofeng, M., Xiang, C. (2013). Big data management: concepts, techniques and challenges [J].Journal of Computer Research and Development,1, 98.

People Believe In Myths Essays - Anthropology Of Religion, Mythology

People Believe In Myths Mythology Every race of humans and most cultures believed in a myth or type of myth at one time. Sometimes a myth can be something small like a teacher whos said to be an alien. Yet some are quite big and still believed in today like the loch ness monster. Myths have been around since the beginning of time and will be there to the end. All of us no one, and weve all told one. Probably the biggest myth of all that was believed in by two different cultures was that of Greek and Roman mythology. The list of gods go on and on, to name few Id have to say Zeus, Artemis, Atlas, Athena, Cronus, Hera, Rhea, Hermes, Hades, and the god of the sea, Poseidon. In Roman myth they just changed the names to names like Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Pluto, and Uranus. There was also Demo-gods who were half-man half-god; these were usually heroes like Hercules and Achilles. The strongest of these gods was Zeus who wielded the mighty thunderbolt. He was the king of the gods. His wife was origina lly his sister and her name is Hera. She was the goddess of birth. Some of the most told Greek stories were these as I found out in the book Greek and Roman Mythology from A to Z. They told the story of Atlas, doomed to hold the sky forever (21). Medusa, if you looked at her you turned to stone (77). Yet some of the most popular stories were of Zeus and his love affairs which all together he had thirteen (125). Scandinavia had many myths as well called Norse mythology. I learned from the book Norse Gods and Giants that According to them Ymir the Blackstone 3 Frost giant was the first living thing (1). After that men grew from his fur during his sleep. Odin was their leader (14). He rode and eight-legged horse and claimed that the frost giants are evil and therefore should be destroyed (154). Odin had a son named Thor, he was the strongest of the Norse gods. They called Thor the god of thunder and sometimes the hammer thrower. Unlike Greek and Roman myth the Norse gods did not meddle in human affairs. Most stories of gods didnt include humans. When there was a story of a great hero the gods were not involved almost at all. Most myths have been proven to be false but some still exist today. They were improved on by some cultures at times but eventually they faded away because most never really believed in them in the first place. We study them to get a feel for what it was like for that culture at the time and the way people acted. Myths still exist but does not play the role it once did. Bibliographies 1. Rosen, Donna. World Mythology Chicago: National Textbook Company, 1986. 2. O Flaherty, Wendy D. Hindu Myths Aylesbury Bucks, England: Penguin Books, 1975. 3.Ions, Veronica. Indian Mythology New York: Peter Bedrick Books, 1984. 4.DAulaires. Norse gods and giants New York: Double day, 1986. 5.Daly, Kathleen, N. Greek and Roman Mythology A to Z New York: Facts On File, 1992 Mythology Essays