Editing Destiny (section)

==Literature==
In ancient Greece, many legends and tales teach the futility of trying to outmaneuver an inexorable fate that has been correctly predicted. This portrayal of fate is present in works such as ''[[Oedipus Rex]]'' (427 BCE),<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sophocles|editor1=Stephen Berg|editor2=Diskin Clay|title=Oedipus the King|date=1978|orig-year=427 BC|publisher=Oxford UP|location=New York}}</ref> the ''[[Iliad]],'' the ''[[Odyssey]]'' (800 BCE), and ''[[Theogony]].'' Many ancient Chinese works have also portrayed the concept of fate, most notably the ''[[Liezi]],'' ''[[Mencius (book)|Mengzi]],'' and the ''[[Zhuangzi (book)|Zhuangzi]].'' Similarly, and in Italy, the Spanish [[Duque de Rivas]]' play that [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]] transformed into ''[[La Forza del Destino]]'' ("The Force of Destiny") includes notions of fate.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

In England, fate has played a notable literary role in Shakespeare's ''[[Macbeth]]'' (1606), Thomas Hardy's ''[[Tess of the d'Urbervilles]]'' (1891), Samuel Beckett's ''[[Endgame (play)|Endgame]]'' (1957), and W.W Jacobs' popular short story "[[The Monkey's Paw]]" (1902). In America, [[Thornton Wilder]]'s book ''[[The Bridge of San Luis Rey]]'' (1927) portrays the conception of fate.

In Germany, fate is a recurring theme in the literature of [[Hermann Hesse]] (1877–1962), including ''[[Siddhartha (novel)|Siddharta]]'' (1922) and his magnum opus, ''Das Glasperlenspiel,'' also published as ''[[The Glass Bead Game]]'' (1943). And by Hollywood through such characters as Neo in ''[[The Matrix]]''. The common theme of these works involves a protagonist who cannot escape their  destiny, however hard they try. In [[Neil Gaiman]]'s graphic novel series ''[[The Sandman (Vertigo)|The Sandman]]'', destiny is one of the [[Endless (comics)|Endless]], depicted as a blind man carrying a book that contains all the past and all the future: "Destiny is the oldest of the Endless; in the Beginning was the Word, and it was traced by hand on the first page of his book, before ever it was spoken aloud."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Season of mists|last=Gaiman, Neil|others=Jones, Kelley; Jones, Malcolm, III; Dringenberg, Mike; Wagner, Matt; Russell, P. Craig; Pratt, George|isbn=978-1401285814|edition=30th anniversary|location=Burbank, CA|oclc=1065971941}}</ref>
[[File:Jorge Luis Borges.jpg|thumb|Destiny is a frequent concept in [[Jorge Luis Borges]]' stories and poems.]]
Destiny is a frequent concept in [[Jorge Luis Borges]]' short stories and poems. In ''[[The Garden of Forking Paths]],'' destiny is represented by a [[labyrinth]] of choices, where every possibility exists simultaneously. The protagonist later realizes his actions are predetermined as the story unfolds with an inevitable conclusion. In ''[[The Lottery in Babylon]],'' as a metaphor for fate and chance, a secret lottery determines every aspect of life, making personal choice irrelevant. In ''[https://ciudadseva.com/texto/ajedrez-3/#google_vignette Ajedrez],'' Chess pieces move accordingly to fixed rules, symbolizing how humans follow a predetermined destiny controlled by an unseen hand.

Many stories and poems by Borges also develop the idea of a destined death. In ''[https://www.poesi.as/jlb0506.htm Poema conjetural],'' an important historical figure in the history of [[Argentina]], who had dreamed of having a civilized and prestigious life and death, ends up being violently tracked down by "savages" and killed, but instead of lamenting his death, he dies surprisingly joyfully "finding his south american destiny".

Similarly, in ''[[The South (short story)|The South]]'', a dying man in a hospital hallucinates about having a heroic death, in which he is killed in a [[:es:Esgrima criolla|duel]] against a [[gaucho]].