Divine intervention is a “direct and obvious intervention of a god or goddess in the affairs of human beings.” In various myths such as the Iliad, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and Heracles, divine intervention was required to curb a hero's destructive or overly powerful forces. Although divine intervention was used to weaken several heroes, the purpose of binding was the same in all narratives. The Iliad: Book XX of Homer features a battle between the Trojans and the Achaeans, shortly after the death of Patroclus (Lattimore Book XVI), where the gods must intervene to curb Achilleus' destructive nature which is amplified due to pain and anger resulting from the loss of a cousin/lover. The divines foresaw an early fall of Troy caused by Achilleus' intensified destructive nature, so they interfered in the battle to protect a larger ideal of destiny, the destiny of a nation, by manipulating smaller ideals of destiny, the destiny of people's lives ( Lattimora 405). At the beginning of the battle, after the gods descend from Olympus, they decide to sit back and watch as their mortal squads will take care of themselves until Apollo takes Lykoan form and forces Aeneas to challenge Achilleus, thus establishing the first act of divine intervention. (Lattimore 406-407). When Achilleus is inches away from killing Aeneas, Poseidon takes a liking to him and takes him to safety (Lattimore 407-411). The last interference occurs during the fight between Hector and Achilleus, where Achilleus is about to kill him and Apollo saves Hector (Lattimore 416). The rescue of Hector in this battle is an important event in the Iliad because the fates of Achilleus and Hector are related, which further means that if Hector dies... in the middle of the folio... during the 8th century BC and Heracles comes the most present, dating back to the beginning of the 5th century BC. Looking at these myths, it can be concluded that the involvement of the gods in these stories decreases and becomes less active as we get closer to the present. In the Gilgamesh epic, the furthest from the present time, divine intervention was equally distributed, causing various gods to appear, and was found at the beginning, middle and end of the Sumerian epic. The Iliad, although the gods were active in Book XX, did not have much prior activity throughout the Iliad because Zeus had banished divine interference (Lattimore 404). Heracles represented a very active Heracles who did everything he could to thwart Heracles' efforts, but was primarily focused on her. Although the gods and goddesses aided Heracles in his labors, Hera's role was the focal point of divine intervention.