Often the armies brought this matter up against me –
they would revile me in public. But I am not to blame!
Zeus and Fate and the Fury stalking through the night,
they are the ones who drove that savage madness in my heart,
that day in assembly when I seized Achilles’ prize –
on my own authority, true, but what could I do?
A god impels all things to their fulfil1ment.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 19, lines 99-105. Speaking with Achilles at an assembly of the Achaean army, Agamemnon says that the armies have oftened reviled him for seizing Briseis from Achilles. But he was not responsible, he claims, rather it was the god Zeus who drove him to do this madness. He argues that the fate of man is controlled by Zeus and the gods.