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Mon. July1

Zeus is seduced by Hera and the magic love girdle of Aphrodite, allowing the Greeks to prevail while he sleeps. When he wakes, he is angry at Hera, and also at Poseidon, who is leading the Greek army and pushing the Trojans back from the ships. Hera capitulates, but then holds a secret council of the gods where she tries to incite rebellion. Zeus makes it clear that the outcome of the war, and its every progression, has been predetermined because of his promise to Thetis to bring Achilles glory. The outcome hardly seems to matter since all are doomed to mortality. All that should matter to the individual warrior is how he conducts himself on the field of valor, since that is all he can control.

Even the gods are subject to fate. Hera’s attempt to incite rebellion against Zeus and change the outcome of the war is just as futile as Hector’s attempts to save his city and his family, though he seems far more heroic. I would argue that the gods, in fact, can never be heroic because they don’t have to face death.

The paradox of fate and free will here reminds me of a passage in Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. The Ainar all worship Iluvatar in song, except for Melkor, the enemy, who opposes the will of the One, and sings his own tune. Inevitably though, his discordant motif is woven into the music and simply provides greater gravitas to the symphony. This mirrors the same theme in the rebellion of Lucifer against God in Paradise Lost.