Both Homer's The Odyssey and Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe use fate to explain why the protagonists endure the trials they also endured if in different contexts. In the Odyssey, Destiny takes on its traditional role of being a puppet of the gods, but with less rigidity. Humanity is given some freedom to determine its own destiny, as demonstrated when Zeus recalls Aegisthus after Orestes had killed him: "Ah, how brazen they are, the way these mortals blame the gods / Only from us, they say, come all their miseries, yes / but they themselves, with their reckless ways, aggravate their sorrows beyond their share” (Homer 50) does not seem to completely distance himself from the role that the gods play in commanding human destiny however; , it does not even seem to completely ignore the power that humanity has in directing the course of its own destiny and this is evident in Zeus' declaration to the other gods. However, Daniel Defoe seems to place humanity's destiny entirely in human nature, as proven by what Robinson Crusoe tells his readers: Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned”? Get an original essay “My father, who was very old, had given me a good dose of culture, as far as home education is concerned... and designed me for the law; but I would not have been content with anything but to go to sea, and my inclination to this carried me so strongly against the will, nay against the commands of my father, and against the entreaties and persuasions of my mother and other friends, that there seemed to be nothing fatal in that propensity of Nature which tends directly towards that life of misery which was to befall me” (Defoe 5). As with Homer, Daniel Defoe does not rigidly conform to the idea that fate is entirely controlled by the divine or innate. strengths but that humanity had a role to play in the fulfillment of its destinies. Shortly after leaving Humber, Crusoe experiences a storm in which he shortly thereafter recounts his feelings of being rightly "overwhelmed with the judgment of Heaven" for what he thought was the result of leaving his parents' home (9). This implies that Crusoe has an awareness of personal responsibility. Although Homer and Daniel Defoe seem to agree on the presence of destiny, the way Homer and Defoe manifest it in their works are contrary, and perhaps this has a lot to do with the cultural background of both works. For example, Robinson Crusoe carries with it a religious theme that seems to mirror the religious background of its creator, as noted by John Richetti, "Crusoe's split personality takes us back to the young Defoe, the pious dissident who struggled with a calling to the ministry but returned to the life of business and business." of a businessman and entrepreneur..." (xvi). Leah Orr also agrees with this sentiment, writing: "Defoe himself, as far as we know, was a dissident, fiercely anti-Catholic, and interested in colonization only insofar as it was profitable to investors... He (Crusoe) he is Protestant” (Orr 19). Although, according to Orr, there is little evidence to suggest that Daniel Defoe is trying to portray Crusoe in his own image, Daniel Defoe is using Crusoe's idea of ​​Providence, an idea that is typical of the 18th century Protestantism when it explains the existence (and conflict) of colonialists - inspired slavery (Koch 371). very rare for the Providence of God to throw us into any condition; and that of two companies of ships which were now driven back into,.