Heavenly Hierarchy: Explained?

            

“Fate is a misconseption, it's only a cover-up for the fact you don't have control over your own life.”
-MacVegan

        Now that we're finally finished reading about all of the heavenly high school drama that is "the Iliad", I think it's time to discuss one of the most obscure topics of the epic: Fate. Is fate a being? Is there more than one fate? Who governs fate? We find ourselves asking all of these questions throughout the iliad without a clear answer. I can't tell you how the greeks perceived fate, and I can't tell you how Homer perceived fate, but I can tell you how I perceive it.

            Lets take a look at the polytheistic culture that is depicted in this story. There are many 'Gods' with different personalities, traits, abilities and devotees. These 'Gods' come down to earth and fight in mortal battles, appear to people in dreams, and they have free will. Their free will, however, is limited. Zeus may decide he wants one side to win a battle, but if the scales say otherwise he has no choice but to obey them. It would seem that the only limitation that these 'Gods' have is that they cannot act outside the will of the fates, which suggests that the 'Gods' aren't the supreme beings in the cosmos. This suggestion would also mean that the fates are, in fact, in charge of keeping order and making decisions.

             I know what you're thinking: "Now hold on a second, Ben. Before you were discussing fate as a singular thing, now you're saying it's multiple beings? That's insane!" I know it seems crazy, but the 'fates' are referred to in a pluralistic sense a few times in the iliad. Which brings me to a new question: "How can the supreme entity of the universe actually be separate beings?" Well, this is a tricky question, but I think I have the answer. In christianity we believe in something similar that we like to call the trinity. Three separate beings that are also one supreme being at the same time. This definition of a supreme entity would work perfectly to describe the 'fates'.

                 So I'm sure that you're all thinking right about now: "If the 'fates' are in control of the universe, then what does that make the 'Gods'?" That, my friends, is an excellent question, but it can also be answered by looking at christianity. Our God has a menagerie of heavenly hosts at his disposal, most commonly referred to as Angels or Arch Angels. These angels have been known to: Help destroy cities, appear to people in dreams, and fight with mortals. These angels also have different traits, different personalities, different allegiances and free will. The angels do not act outside the will of God. (Although they have the ability to, only a few have actually rebelled)  Some angels, called Arch Angels, actually have power above all the other angels. Do you see where I'm going with this? If the 'fates' are the supreme being in the universe, the greek 'gods' could be considered angels. Which in turn makes this polytheistic culture seem almost monotheistic.

I realize that there's almost nothing in the text that says that I'm right, but there's nothing that says I'm wrong either. Let me know your thoughts on my theory in the comments.

Until next week,
Benjamin

P.S. I commented on Hunter's blog.