Throughout Greek literature, fate is a predominant theme. Characters often feel that their actions have little meaning because their fate is already predetermined. In The Iliad and Oedipus the King, Achilles and Oedipus have received oracles that reveal their fate. However, Achilles and Oedipus react in drastically different ways to their fate. Ultimately, though, fate and their reactions lead to their downfall. Neither Achilles nor Oedipus has a favorable fate to begin with. Achilles’ mother tells him, “Two fates bear me on the day of death. If I hold out here and I lay siege in Troy, my journey home is gone, but my glory never dies. If I voyage back to the fatherland I love, my pride, my glory dies,” (Iliad IX, 499-503). After Oedipus learns that the man he thinks is his father might not actually be his father, he goes to Delphi. He retells his fate of “I should mate with my own mother, and beget a brood that men would shutter to behold, and that I was to be the murderer of my own father,” (Oedipus, 790-794). Although quite different fates, neither character has a good ending. Originally, Achilles chooses to fight in the war and have a short life filled with glory. He has no regard for life in general, and is violent, killing as many …show more content…
When Oedipus first arrives in Thebes, he outwits the Sphinx, who has killed those who cannot solve her riddle, so she kills herself. Perhaps Oedipus felt he could outwit fate because that is how he got the crown to begin with—he outwit the Sphinx. Oedipus attempts to run from fate, but cannot, which leads to his ultimate downfall. Additionally, Achilles’ story is one of a tragic hero while Oedipus’ is just tragic, likely because Achilles never attempts to run or outwit his fate while that is all Oedipus
The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that the events in Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles, are the result of the hero’s self determination and restless attempt to escape a terrifying destiny predicted for him by the oracle of Apollo at Delphi. My intention is to prove that although the Fates play a crucial part in the story, it is Oedipus'choices and wrong doing that ultimately lead to his downfall.
The ancient Greeks were fond believers of Fate. Fate, defined according to Webster’s, is “the principle or determining cause or will by which things in general are believed to come to be as they are or events to happen as the do.” The Greeks take on Fate was slightly modified. They believed that the gods determined Fate: “…fate, to which in a mysterious way the gods themselves were subject, was an impersonal force decreeing ultimate things only, and unconcerned with day by day affairs.” It was thought that these gods worked in subtle ways; this accounts for character flaws (called harmatia in Greek). Ancient Greeks thought the gods would alter a person’s character, in order for that person to suffer (or gain from) the appropriate outcome. Such was the case in Oedipus’s story.
Instead of running away from his troubles, he puts the element of fate into motion. As a reckless. hot-headed youth , Oedipus ends up inflicting immortal wounds on his. own father after a mere quarrel. He is obviously ignorant of the fact.
In Sophocles ' Oedipus the King, the themes of fate and free will are very strong throughout the play. Only one, however, brought about Oedipus ' downfall and death. Both points could be argued to great effect. In ancient Greece, fate was considered to be a rudimentary part of daily life. Every aspect of life depended and was based upon fate (Nagle 100). It is common belief to assume that mankind does indeed have free will and each individual can decide the outcome of his or her life. Fate and free will both decide the fate of Oedipus the King.
Achilles, from Homer’s The Iliad, is a tragic hero. Achilles’s quick rage coincides with a key characteristic of a tragic hero. Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae takes Briseis, Achilles’s prize, or woman. This act is an insult to him, as it is betraying Agamemnon as a more powerful figure, which makes Achilles seem like less of a man. Achilles is enraged by this act of self-righteousness; Homer writes, “Should he draw sharp sword at his hip, thrust though the ranks and kill Agamemnon now? - or check his rage and beat his own fury down?” (371) Achilles’s rage, or hamartia, is very apparent within his thoughts. Just being told that his prize was taken brought out a monstrous rage in him, a rage that contemplated killing Agamemnon because it made Achilles seem helpless. His arrogant temper, his tragic flaw, per Aristotle’s Poetics, can classify him as a tragic hero. Another factor of a tragic heroism that is present in Achilles is his noble stature. His mother, the sea goddess Thetis, has gone to Olympia on the behalf of Achilles to persuade Zeus, the king of the gods, to help the Trojans defeat the Achaeans. Achilles’s demigod standing is revealed when Homer writes, ...
The idea of fate has existed for a long time and exists even today. Fate revolves around the idea that people's lives are predetermined and that no matter what is done it cannot be changed. With the gods it was used to explain events that seemed strange. Sophocles expands on this idea by introducing Oedipus' fate. The thought of fate is strong considering no matter how hard he struggles he still receives what was predetermined. As a baby he survived the elements on Mount Cithaeron. As Oedipus was destined to live, it shows the dominance of fate. Having fate play such a large part of the play is certainly an insight into the Greek's idea that fate controls us no matter how hard we struggle against it.
... was when the Greek armies were trying to seize the city of Troy without the help of Achilles , the fight was relentless. With the unfortunate death of Achilles beloved companion and friend Patrolcus, Achilles entered the war with the city of Troy only to wind up killing his enemy, Hector. In all of the fates predicted, Achilles knew ahead of time what the outcome could possibly be, with this in mind, Achilles has the freewill of whether to engage in the war and lose his life. However, fate had been reveal prior to the killing of Hector, Achilles engaged in war with revenge on his mind and fulfilled the prophecies.
Well before these predicted events could take place, Oedipus is set to be abandoned with pinned ankles and left to die. Within the essence of the story lies the function of fate: ”…master, now you / know: your birth has doomed you” (516), these, the words of a lowly herdsman, fully encompass the idea or fate; Oedipus’s own existence, rather than intervention, or lack thereof, by humans or gods, caused this course of events, in other words, fate is static at birth. Another example of this is throughout the play when characters try to evade the fate that is bestowed upon them. “Time, who sees all, caught you / living a life you never willed” (517), this examines human will in comparison with fate and informs the reader that will is the lesser of the two, though Oedipus wills himself not to become what is prophesized of him, because this fate is established at birth, there is nothing he can do. “All! All! It all happened! / It was all true” (516), these words from Oedipus encompass his devastation and disbelief that his fate has come to be true, Oedipus is destressed by living the life fate set for
Instead of blaming the gods or the fates or even the oracle, Oedipus instead does something which defines him as a tragic hero, he takes all of the blame and puts it on himself. Oedipus fully realizes that he murdered his father and slept with his mother after his long conversation with the blind prophet and shepherds (Sophocles, 465-479 1271-1310) However, it is when he sees his wife’s body hanging from the rope that he realizes fully what has happened, and that realization shakes Oedipus so much that he gouges his own eyes out in an attempt to both torture himself and accept his punishment as well as to no longer be able to see his once beautiful children, now turned into monstrosities in his eyes (Sophocles, 1395-1414) Oedipus accepts his fate completely near the end of the play, telling Creon to cast him out of Thebes with the words: “As for me, never condemn the city of my fathers to house my body, not while I’m alive, no, let me live on the mountains, on Cithaeron… let me die there, where they [Oedipus’s parents] tried to kill me” (Sophocles 1587-1594). It is with the accepting of his fate that Oedipus takes full responsibility for his own actions, despite the fact that he was unable to control his actions and he was ignorant of any crimes he was capable of. This is just another thing that makes him the epitome of a tragic hero, and it is the characteristic
Sophocles demonstrates in the play Oedipus the King that a human being, not a God, ultimately determines destiny. That is, people get what they deserve. In this play, one poorly-made judgment results in tragic and inescapable density. Oedipus fights and kills Laius without knowing Laius is his father. Then, Oedipus's pitiless murdering causes several subsequent tragedies such as the incestuous marriage of Oedipus gets into the flight with Laius. However, Oedipus's characteristics after Laius's death imply that Oedipus could avoid the fight as well as the murder of his father, but did not. Ultimately, Oedipus gets what he deserves due to his own characteristics that lead him to murder Laius: impatience, delusion, and arrogance.
In fact, Oedipus is doomed to kill his father, marry his mother and finally to be blind. It was his destiny or fate; he has nothing to do with this end or to prevent it. It was his fate which was manipulating him; drive him from Cornith to kill his father and then to Thebes to marry his mother. His destiny made him "his wife's son, his mother husband." By the hands of fate, he turned to be the most hated man in Thebes and "the man whose life is hell for others and for himself."
From the very beginning, Oedipus was destined to fulfill Apollo's prophecy of killing his father. Even though King Lauis tries to kill Oedipus to stop the fulfillment of this shameful prophecy, fate drives the Corinthian messenger to save Oedipus. What the gods fortell will come true and no human can stop it from happening, not even the kings. Oedipus is once again controlled by this power when he leaves the place of his child hood after he hears that he is to kill his father and marry his mother. "I shall shrink from nothing...to find the the murderer of Laius...You are the murderer..." Oedipus tried to stop the prophecy from coming true by leaving Corinth and only fate can make Oedipus turn to the road where he kills his true father. Leaving Corinth makes Oedipus lose his childhood by making him worry of such issues young people should not have to worry about and becoming a king of a strange land. Last of all, Oedipus carries the last part of the prophecy out, marrying his mother. " I would... never have been known as my mother's husband. Oedipus has no control over the outcome of his life. Fate causes Oedipus to have known the answer to the Sphinx's riddle and win his marriage to his mother, Jocasta. Had fate not intervened, the chances of marrying Jocasta would have been small since there is an enourmous number of people and places to go. Oedipus loses his sense of dignity after he discovers he is not only a murderer, but also that he had committed incest.
Oedipus was a victime of fate, his futur was foretold by an Oracle, he had no way of knowing that his wife was his mother nor that the stranger he killed was his father. Oedipus could not prevent his own downfall. Oedipus was the king of Thebes, he became king when he cured the city of a deadly plague. He cured the plague by solving the riddle of the mythical creature, the Sphinkx. Now the city is suffering from another plague and as king Oedipus must solve the riddle of this one.
In the Greek society, Achilles has the role of the aggressive soldier. From the very first lines of the epic, we are introduced to Achilles’ murderous rage:
When Oedipus realizes what his future holds he decides to avoid it at all costs. As a result, he picked up and ran away. He decided not to tell his parents he was leaving so that he could avoid hurting their feelings. When he was on his journey to Thebes there were people coming towards him and they got in an upset about who had the right of way where three roads crossed. He ended up killing all but one of the men there. This is where Sophocles proves that you can never run from your fate. Even Jocasta accounts for this happening, “That it was fate that he should die a victim at the hands of his own son, a son to be born to Laius and me. But now, he the king was killed by a foreign highway robber at the place were three roads meet-so goes the story” (1.1.791-796). The man he killed in that street was actually his dad.