Background:
This phrase is first recorded in Homer's Iliad:
Then to him, unterrified, said Hector of the glancing helm: "Son of Peleus,
think not with words to affright me as a child since I too know myself how to
speak taunts and unjust speech. And I know that thou art a man of might, and far better man than I. Yet doth this issue lie in the lap of the gods, whether I though weaker shall take thy life with my hurled spear, for mine too hath been found keen ere now."
(from the 1922 Andrew Lang, Water Leaf & Ernest Myers translation of the Ilead
of Homer)
Apparently 'lap of the gods' can also be translated 'knees of the gods' which
doesn't quite have the same ring about it!
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