Destiny, Fate, Free Will and Free Choice in Oedipus the King - Oedipus and Fate

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Oedipus the King and Fate

D.T. Suzuki, a renowned expert on Zen Buddhism, called attention to the

topic of free will in one of his lectures by stating that it was the battle of

"God versus Man, Man versus God, God versus Nature, Nature versus God, Man

versus Nature, Nature versus Man1." These six battles constitute an ultimately

greater battle: the battle of free will versus determinism. Free will is that

ability for a human being to make decisions as to what life he or she would like

to lead and have the freedom to live according to their own means and thus

choose their own destiny; determinism is the circumstance of a higher being

ordaining a man's life from the day he was born until the day he dies. Free

will is in itself a far-reaching ideal that exemplifies the essence of what

mankind could be when he determines his own fate. But with determinism, a man

has a predetermined destiny and fate that absolutely cannot be altered by the

man himself. Yet, it has been the desire of man to avoid the perils that his

fate ho lds andthus he unceasingly attempts to thwart fate and the will of the

divine.. Within the principle of determinism, this outright contention to divine

mandate is blasphemous and considered sin. This ideal itself, and the whole

concept of determinism, is quite common in the workings of Greek and Classical

literature. A manifest example of this was the infamous Oedipus of The Theban

Plays, a man who tried to defy fate, and therefore sinned.

The logic of Oedipus' transgression is actually quite obvious, and

Oedipus' father, King Laius, also has an analogous methodology and transgression.

They both had unfortunate destinies: Laius was destined to be killed by his own

son, and Oedipus was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. This was

the ominous decree from the divinatory Oracle at Delphi. King Laius feared the

Oracle's proclamation and had his son, the one and only Oedipus, abandoned on a

mountain with iron spikes as nails so that he would remain there to eventually

die. And yet, his attempt to obstruct fate was a failure, for a kindly shepherd

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