These passages ask how far what happens to a man is settled in advance. In Homer, Jove lets his son die because his doom is fated, and in Herodotus Apollo can only delay Croesus’s ruin. Marcus Aurelius accepts that everything was prepared from eternity. Lucretius frees the will from fate through the swerve of atoms, and Josephus records three Jewish schools disagreeing on the point. St Paul speaks of predestination, while Boethius and Dante keep providence and free will together, Boethius by distinguishing providence from fate.
Chosen by hand, not counted: a passage is here when it is plainly about the topic, and the list is not every mention. Each is shown in the order the books were written, and each links to the section it is in.
Jove wishes to save his son Sarpedon; Juno reminds him that the man’s doom is long fated.
… The son of scheming Saturn looked down upon them in pity and said to Juno who was his wife and sister, “Alas, that it should be the lot of Sarpedon whom I love so dearly to perish by the hand of Patroclus. … Book 16 →The Pythia tells Croesus that not even a god can escape fated destiny; Apollo only delayed it.
When the Lydians came and repeated that which they were enjoined to say, it is related that the Pythian prophetess spoke as follows: "The fated destiny it is impossible even for a god to escape. And Croesus paid the debt due for the sin of his fifth ancestor, who being one of the spearmen of the Heracleidai followed the treacherous device of a woman, and having slain his master took possession of his royal dignity, … Book 1 →Lucretius argues that atoms swerve, and so free will is wrested from the chain of fate.
… Again, if ev'r all motions are co-linked, And from the old ever arise the new In fixed order, and primordial seeds Produce not by their swerving some new start Of motion to sunder the covenants of fate, That cause succeed not cause from everlasting, Whence this free will for creatures o'er the lands, Whence is it wrested from the fates,--this will Whereby we step right forward where desire Leads each man on, whereby … Book 2 →Paul writes that those whom God foreknew he predestinated, called, justified and glorified.
For whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of his Son: that he might be the Firstborn amongst many brethren. Romans 8 →Josephus sets out the views of the Pharisees, Essenes and Sadducees on fate and human freedom.
… At this time there were three sects among the Jews, who had different opinions concerning human actions; the one was called the sect of the Pharisees, another the sect of the Sadducees, and the other the sect of the Essens. Now for the Pharisees, 11 they say that some actions, but not all, are the work of fate, and some of them are in our own power, and that they are liable to fate, but are not caused by fate. … Book 13 →Marcus tells himself that whatever happens was prepared for him from all eternity.
Whatever may happen to thee, it was prepared for thee from all eternity; and the implication of causes was from eternity spinning the thread of thy being, and of that which is incident to it (iii. 11; iv. 26). Book 10 →Philosophy distinguishes providence, the divine plan seen whole, from fate, its unfolding in time.
… The coming into being of all things, the whole course of development in things that change, every sort of thing that moves in any wise, receives its due cause, order, and form from the steadfastness of the Divine mind. This mind, calm in the citadel of its own essential simplicity, has decreed that the method of its rule shall be manifold. … Book 4 →Marco Lombardo tells Dante the heavens start men’s motions, but free will answers for the world’s evil.
… Ye who are living every cause refer Still upward to the heavens, as if all things They of necessity moved with themselves. If this were so, in you would be destroyed Free will, nor any justice would there be In having joy for good, or grief for evil. The heavens your movements do initiate, I say not all; but granting that I say it, Light has been given you for good and evil, And free volition; … Purgatorio 16 →