The heroes of the Iliad as well as the characters and immortals were occupied in the conveying of personal responsibility on factors deemed outside of their control. What Homer was trying to create for the reader was the idea that a character in the epic was not responsible for their actions; rather an outside force regularly initiated action and thinking either directly or through another entity. If a character were perceived as having made a mistake it would obviously have been attributed to the will of the gods or Fate, rather than their own free will. Throughout the epic there is evidence that shows that both mortals and immortals acting upon the concept of personal responsibility in different ways; either by denying it, or attributing it to another area of Greek culture and Mythology.
             Certain dialogues between heroes, mortals, and immortals in the epic provide the best examples of rejecting personal responsibility. During the first book of the epic, in the dialogue between Achilles and Agamemnon, perhaps the best example of rejecting personal responsibility. It begins when Agamemnon takes Achilles' war prize, Briseis, as a result of losing Chryseis. While it is clear to us that Agamemnon is acting upon his own greed and need for power, he places the responsibility for his actions, later in the epic, on Zeus, Fate, and Fury by saying,
             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?
             Likewise, in book one when Agamemnon says that he will take Briseis, Achilles contemplates whether or not to draw his sword and kill Agamemnon. While he is deciding weather to check his rage or to thrust through the ranks and kill Agamemnon Athena grabs him by the hair and warns him against fighting with Agamemnon (1.224-226 Fagles).
             Down from the skies ...