Laudator Temporis Acti

David Kovacs, The Heroic Muse: Studies in the Hippolytus and Hecuba of Euripides (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987), p. 74:

In neither the one case nor the other would it be true to say that the gods make human beings into puppets and destroy their freedom. The proper analogy is not a puppeteer and his puppets but a grand master playing chess with a novice. The novice's freedom is complete: he may make any moves he likes. But the grand master defeats defeats him easily because he is a better chess player and can see farther ahead. Just so are the gods more powerful than mortals, and when a god wishes to destroy a man, his actions may be free but they will not achieve their intended goal. And just as a grand master might add insult to injury by announcing in advance the exact piece with which he will produce check-mate, so the gods often mock their victims by giving them accurate prophecies of future destruction, prophecies which they nevertheless cannot avoid and which may even be instrumental in their downfall.