Destiny and free will in Homer's Odyssey When we look at Greek mythology we often come across the gods of that era. Sometimes they are simply backdrops for the human element of the story, but in stories like The Odyssey the gods play a prominent if not vital role to the central themes of the story. Destiny has a place in the Greek world but its place is not like in other scenarios or worlds. It is important to understand the word before discussing it. Destiny, as far as Greek mythology is concerned, is not just destiny. By most standards, fate means that things happen for an unknown reason over which no one has any control. However, in the world of Greek mythology, fate doesn't just happen. The gods engineer fate and interfere to make things happen that otherwise might not have happened. Since players are not always aware of the gods' involvement, things may actually seem like fate but are actually planned events. Free will, on the other hand, is not by design. It refers to the concept of having full authority over one's aspirations and ultimate direction. The key is "definitive". The gods can make a plan and choose the path, but people must walk it. Therefore, fate and free will are not mutually exclusive and both continue throughout the Odyssey. In the Odyssey, life is one's responsibility; instead of leaving everything to fate, the characters had a significant influence on their own existence. In the Odyssey the gods are responsible for controlling many aspects of where the story goes, but the people still have to choose to go. The gods of the Odyssey are those who held Odysseus captive for over eight years. They were responsible for capturing him in the first place and then refused to let him go for nearly a decade. When they finally decided that he should be allowed to find his way home, they let his captor Kalypso know. However, Odysseus still had to choose to leave. Kalypso tried to hold him back by offering him immortality. “You would stay here, guard this house, and be immortal” (Homer 267). Odysseus could have stayed, but he chose to go. Some say that the gods knew that Odysseus would not stay and that is why they decided to let him go.