may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, nethier shall ye touch it, lest ye die…when the woman saw that the tree was good for food…she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat…God asked, Hast though eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat (Genesis 53 book 3)?God told Adam and Eve what to do, but he allowed them to make their own decisions and suffer the consequences of the choice that they made. They had free will to do as the wished and had an understanding God to watch over them and let them learn from their mistakes.The Aeneid was written by the Roman, Virgil. During this time, the Roman’s believed that they did not have free will, the gods told them what to do with their lives. Aeneas believed that his mission, to found a city that would be the Roman state, was imposed upon him by the gods.The god’s interpreter…has brought Commands down through the racing winds!…With my very ears I drank his message in!…I sail for Italy not of my own free will (The Aeneid 857 lines 468-75).The gods told Aeneas that he should found a city. He did not necessarily feel that he was forced, he just knew that what the gods told him to do was right. But, like the Greeks, the Romans did not have free will to do as they pleased. They were simply told what to do by the gods, not destined or fated like the Greeks.Although the degree of free will was different in each society, the Greeks, Christians, and Romans were all effected in one way or another. Whether it was the gods controlling their lives or God watching over their lives, free will had a very strong imprint on how each society lived their life. ...
