The development of Western Civilization can be tracked back to the writings of the Greeks. Several Greeks include Homer, Sophocles, Thucydides, and Plato laid the foundation of the Western worlds of heritage.
The epic poems of Homer stressed the many characteristics that the Greeks admired and rewarded. These include heroic traits, bravery in battle, personal honor, a love for adventure, and cleaver behavior. The Odyssey deals with adventures of Odysseus after the Trojan War. Odysseus wife Penople is to marry a man that can accomplish a trait that only Odysseus is able to accomplish. When Odysseus returns home he dresses up as a beggar to take everything that he has missed in the time that he was gone in, instead of just showing up as himself. On the way home from the War he was punished from the Gods, and they set him through obstacles trying to delay the time of his return. Odysseus again shows clever behavior along with strength, bravery in battle, and heroic traits dealing with and overcoming the obstacles. The period of the Middle Ages with it's feudalism that glorified knighthood and bravery in battle was influenced by Homers writings.
Sophlicies dramatized his ideas of religion, fate, and personal and civic responsibilities. In his trilogy it was destined by the gods that he was to kill his father and marry his mother, so he was given to the king and queen of Corinth. When Oedipus heard about this he ran away from who he thought were his real parents. On his way he comes across Laius his real father and kills him. When he gets to Thebes he is able to answer the riddle of the Sphinx and is made king of Corinth and marries the queen Jocasta who is really his mother. This shows that you really can't change fate. Once Oedipus realizes that he has achieved exactly what he didn't want to do he takes responsibility for it and gauges his eyes out and eventually is exiled to stop the plague that is in Thebes.