Destiny and Fate and Homer Homer Fate and Divine Will.pdf (499,1 kB)     ‘Come, I will speak my mind; and in the name of Destiny and the Fates take not my candour amiss. If the case stands thus, if the Fates are mistresses of all, and their decisions unalterable, then why do men sacrifice to you, and bring hecatombs, and pray for good at your hands? If our prayers can neither save us from evil nor procure us any boon from Heaven, I fail to see what we get for our trouble.’ [1]     It would be remiss to take Lucian’s satire too seriously but it does throws up a valid point regarding the gods and fate of Homer, and Lucian’s famous cross examination of Zeus sums up the problems inherent in understanding these roles of fate, the divine and individual free will. Although it was written over 800 years after Homer in the second century AD, the problem of the...

  In the liminal spaces of the universe things are beyond the comprehension of a material mind. A mind constrained by the material world, unable to reach further than the sum of its parts. For most of us this will always be whether we recognise this or not, we are unable to reach those places that negate boundaries.   For some, the transition is made, sometimes only a glance of eternality, others can place themselves within and without of these places at will. These beings are for some religious, alien beyond and above us ,to others they have achieved beyond the limit of the physical and yet remain in it.   In places and times that we insert ourselves, are we in fact living in reality when reacting with the material world or when we are reacting within what some refer to as a subconscious or mental realm? Dreams, being the most obvious of these examples, still...

  According to Aristotle, everything in motion is moved by something else, as any possible self moving object must contain parts in order to be in motion and this object must move as a whole not just in parts. It also must originate its own motion but this seems impossible; as if any part of this object is motionless, the whole is at rest and therefore the whole body’s motion depends upon the motion of a part of it which results in the self moving object not being able to originate its own motion (8. b) Motion in an eternal world is necessary and therefore Aristotle maintains that a primary unmoved eternal substance is needed because if everything in motion needed something else to be in motion this would result in infinite movers in finite time which is impossible to Aristotle. Thus the original mover is the primary source for all movement and cannot move.    As...

   Hesiod’s Theogony and the Kumarbi Cycle. Eastern Connections in Hesiod.pdf (221,7 kB) Eastern Connections in Hesiod.doc (97,5 kB)   Hesiod’s Theogony documents the origins of the gods and consists of genealogies interwoven with episodes of the Succession...

  What reasons are there for thinking Hesiodic myth is influenced by Near Eastern Myth? Hittite/Hurrian myth and possible parallels with Hesiodic myth   Texts date from 1400-1200BC, content possibly a 200+ years earlier.   Kingship in Heaven (damaged...