Characters in the Odyssey consider their troubles or successes as stemming either from fate and the will of the gods, or from their own choices. This paradoxical philosophy of causality creates a complex worldview. Fate in Greek mythology is inviolable: If Odysseus is fated to return home, the assumption is that, no matter what he does, his fate will be fulfilled. However, the poem also promotes the importance of human choice and responsibility, which chiefly comprises accepting what the gods give, respecting divine law, maintaining a sense of proportion, and practicing self-restraint.

Odysseus is depicted as a character with power and agency. The poem repeatedly shows him considering his options and selecting the best one. When he encounters Nausicaa, he wisely determines that grasping her knees might frighten her, so he keeps his distance, declaring himself a suppliant with words rather than gestures. When offered immortality and endless youth by Calypso, he gently declines, preferring to uphold his mortal identity and return to Ithaca, and accepting that he will have to suffer to do so. When he returns home, he keeps his identity hidden, taking the time to determine who in the household is loyal and can be trusted, such as the bard Phemius and the loyal enslaved servant Medon. When Athena commands Odysseus to stop fighting, he immediately puts down his weapons. Odysseus’s good decisions—when he makes them—endear him to Zeus and Athena, who endeavor to make his journey less difficult.

Odysseus’s ability to choose his course of action means that he is to blame for his bad decisions and costly mistakes. His two most egregious errors occur during his encounter with Polyphemus. When Odysseus and his men first arrive at Polyphemus’s cave, his men want to raid and run, but Odysseus hopes to establish a guest-friendship and insists they stay. Besides exemplifying the danger of foreign lands, the episode demonstrates Odysseus seeking glory over safety: A guest-friendship would signify another alliance, gifts of treasure, and renown, while a raid would provide provisions but nothing lasting. Odysseus’s decision costs six crewmen their lives.

More serious is the boast that Odysseus cannot resist uttering after he and his men escape Polyphemus’s cave. His crewmen beg him to calm down, but his rage is beyond control. He identifies himself to the Sea God Poseidon’s son at the moment he is attempting to escape by sea. This allows Polyphemus to mark him for suffering. Polyphemus asks Poseidon to prevent Odysseus from returning home, but if 



it is

fated that he will see his family, 

then let him get there late and with no honor, 

in pain and lacking ships, and having caused 

the death of all his men, and let him find 

more trouble in his own house (257). 

Poseidon grants his son’s request. Odysseus and his men suffer during their journey. Only Odysseus makes it home alive, and he finds “more trouble” at home. The presumption is that at least some of these troubles could have been avoided if he had not revealed his identity to Polyphemus.

According to Odysseus, he is not the only one whose mistakes cost lives. To the Phaeacians, he describes his crewmen opening the bag of winds from Aeolus because they suspected him of hoarding treasure, blowing their ship off course just as they were about to land on Ithaca. Odysseus also claims to have repeatedly warned his men not to eat the Sun God’s sacred cattle, but his men ignored the warnings and died in a storm sent by Zeus. Only Odysseus, who did not eat the cattle, survived.

Though the poem links wise decision making with good outcomes, it also recognizes instances of unavoidable bad fate. In these instances, the poem suggests, acceptance is the appropriate response. As Telemachus obliquely reminds Penelope grieving while listening to Phemius sing, “Odysseus was not the only one / who did not come back home again from Troy. / Many were lost” (116). The Phaeacians also demonstrate it when they see their ship turn to stone as it enters the harbor after dropping off Odysseus. Aware of a prophecy that they would one day be punished for their gift of intuitive ships, their response is to make offerings to Poseidon, to demonstrate their acceptance and attempt to placate him rather than incur further wrath. Eumaeus also exemplifies this approach, transforming grief and suffering into a source of joy: storytelling. To resist the gods and fate is a futile exercise, but human choices can make that fate more or less tolerable.