A note on Predestination

The ancients were as troubled by questions of free will as some are today. The problem is this: if some agent (gods, God, karma, the Force, etc.) determines one's life, then a criminal is not responsible for his or her crime, and by extension should not be punished. Similarly, acts of virtue need no reward: in fact there is no such thing as free will, humans being reduced to automatons carrying out the decrees of fate. Alternatively, humans have free will and these agents have nothing to do with the matter. Some people prefer a middle ground: the agent grants free will as a gift to humans, or gives an intermediate amount of free will.

For Homer, it was very clear that both gods and mortals had to accept the predetermined fate. But it was still more complicated than this: one might choose between alternative fates, as Achilles did (an ignominous death at an old age versus a glorious death in battle, to be forever sung of); or one might know the outcome while being powerless to prevent it, as Zeus knows of his son Sarpedon's eventual death, and can but postpone it slightly. Further, it was clear that humans could make their lot far worse by "tempting fate" --- that is, by behaving arrogantly or irreligiously. Such behavior was the result of free choice by mortals: frequently a god or seer appears to explicitly warn against the course about to be chosen. Thus the epic journeys of the Odyssey are in part punishment for the sacreligious deeds of Odysseus and his soldiers. To explain such illogical behavior the early Greeks invoked the deity Ate, often translated as Error but also having the property of firing men's minds with madness; or assorted daimones (from which the English word demon eventually comes). But the story unfolds, we are told in the beginning, to "fulfill the plan of the god" (the god meant being Zeus): if this is the plan of Zeus then what role does Moira have to play? So the relationships among gods, mortals, and fate remain untidy. A provocative essay on this topic is found in the first chapter of Greene's book (written when many "ordinary people" were preoccupied by such questions).

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