Are our Fates in our Hands?

Much of early literature deals with the struggle of being merely human in the face of the gods. Man has long struggled with fate, the idea that the most important forces which shape the human life, such as fortune and death, are out of human control. This early idea forces us to question if our lives are our own to control, as we are often taught in Western culture, or if we are simply the pawns of the powers that truly control this world. The stories of Odysseus and Oedipus both contain explorations of this though in very different ways.

The story of Oedipus, written by Sophocles, varies from the literature written before it by having very little dependence or interaction with the gods. Oedipus, the self-confident king of Thebes, is a man who has seemingly escaped his fate. Fated at a young age to kill his father and wed his mother, Oedipus attempted to take his destiny into his own hands and left home. Similarly King Laius, fated to be killed by his son, abandoned the infant to prevent the prophesy from coming true. By creating a life that seemed to make it impossible for this destiny to come true, Oedipus and King Laius thought they had avoided their fated disasters, but these actions ultimately became the cause of their downfall. Leaving his home of Corinth, Oedipus travels and eventually earns the position of king of Thebes by solving the Sphinx’s riddle and ending his terror on the city. Because of this great accomplishment Oedipus is viewed by his subjects as their savior and god-like king. Oedipus’s success has made him both assertive and proud, giving him self-confidence and the belief that he is in control of his own destiny. This serves as a second example of Oedipus’s dependence on his own ability and control rather ...

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...e a large contributor to determining this. While we may not always reap rewards in this world for good or punishments for bad, I believe we are rewarded for faithfulness and goodness once we reach the afterlife, while the evil are punished.

In the worlds of Oedipus and Odysseus these punishments and rewards are reaped during the life and though their fortunes are often decided by their actions, I believe that the gods ultimately have the final decision on the destinies of man, it is simply man’s job to choose the attitude with which we handle our destinies. Though Oedipus and Odysseus both suffer despite their attempts to live honorably, they serve as an example and reminder that even though we are given free-will and the ability to live righteously and please God, it is ultimately the decisions of God that shape our final destinies.