Destiny, Fate, and Free Will in Oedipus the King - A Victim of Fate

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Oedipus the King as a Victim of Fate

Among the first thing a historian discovers in his study of early

civilization are records of people's belief, or faith, in powers greater than

themselves, and their desire to understand what causes these powers to act.

People everywhere wonder about the marvelous things in the sky and on the earth.

What makes the rain? How do the plants and animals live and grow and die? Why

are some people lucky and others unlucky? Some believe in free will while

others believe in fate or destiny. In the play Oedipus the King by Sophocles,

Oedipus was a true victim of fate.

Gods and goddesses were believed to be responsible for the wonders of

science, and the vagaries of human nature; therefore, according to the facts of

this story, Oedipus was a true victim of fate for several reasons. Laius and

Jocasta, the childless king and queen of Thebes, were told by the god Apollo

that their son would kill his father and marry his mother (page 56). A son was

born to them, and they tried to make sure that the prophecy would not come true.

They drove a metal pin through the infants ankles and gave it to a shepherd,

with instructions to leave it to die. The shepherd pitied the little infant so

he gave the child to another shepherd. This shepherd gave the baby to a

childless king and queen of Corinth, Polybus and Merope. This royal couple

named the boy Oedipus, which in its Greek form Oidipous means "swollen foot."

Oedipus was brought up believing that Polybus and Merope were his real parents,

and Lauis and Jocasta believed that their child was dead and the prophecy of

Apollo was false. Many years later, he was told by a drunk man at a banquet that

he was not a true heir of Polybus (page 55). He then went to the oracle of

Apollo, to ask the god who his real parents were. All he was told was that he

would kill his father and marry his mother (page 56). He resolved never to

return to Corinth, to Polybus and Merope, and started out to make a new life for

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