"Thus the immortals have spun our lives that we, wretched men / may live to endure such torments...." (The Iliad bk.24 , ln.613-614) This pessimistic explanation of the human condition was a tradition observed and preserved by the ancient Greeks through the composition of Homer's Iliad. This statement alone, made by the divine Achilles to King Priam in the final chapter of the work, provides the reader with a contextual summary of what the Greeks believed to be their role in the cosmos. Homer's Iliad, among many other themes contained in the poem, "is an anthropocentric epic setting forth the views of the ancient Greeks on man and his relationships" (Clarke 129). Homer demonstrates both pious and customary behavior, as well as the impious and rebellious, to illustrate man's friendly and conflictual relationships. Few relationships composed by Homer are exclusively one or the other. Through this composition, Homer reflects on the relationships between man and destiny, man and the gods, and between man and his species (dominant, subordinate and equal). All of these intricately woven relationships share a common thread: they exert torment on man's life. Man's link with destiny is not simple according to Homer. Although fate is never undone in the poem, it is repeatedly attempted, either by the gods wishing to intervene on behalf of their favored mortals, or by man himself. Zeus plans to tempt fate when the predestined death of his son Sarpedon comes at the hands of Patroclus. Zeus mourns the "cruel fate" and laments: "My heart is torn in two... Should I take it out now, while he is still alive...?" Or finally beat him in the hands of Patroclus? (book 16, ln.514-21). Because of Hera's protests, Zeus bows to...... middle of paper ......ods and their ilk. And it is through these trials that the torments weighed on their lives. Such was the fate of the human condition. "And fate? No living man has ever escaped it" (bk.6, ln.582). Works cited and consulted: Bespaloff, Rachel. On the Iliad. Trans. Mary McCarthy. New York: Pantheon Books, 1947. Clarke, Howard. Homer's Readers: A Historical Introduction to the Iliad and the Odyssey. Newark, Del. : University of Delaware Press, 1981. Goodrich, Norma. Myths of the hero. New York: Orion Press, 1962. Homer: Iliad. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Books, 1990. Richardson, Nicholas. The Iliad: a commentary. Flight. VI: books 21-24. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1993. Willcock, Malcolm M. A Companion to the Iliad: Based on the Richmond Lattimore Translation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976