Fate versus Free Will in Ancient Grecian Literature and Cinema Today

Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles, is an infamous piece of ancient Greek literature. It tells the tale of a young man whom, during infancy, his parents receive an oracle telling them that their son will kill his father and have sexual relations with his mother. The parents of Oedipus then bind his feet and abandon him in the wilderness where a shepherd from the neighboring city of Corinth discovers him. The king and queen of this city raise him; he grows up to be a great leader, and marries the queen of a neighboring city, Jocasta. It is later discovered that on a trek he killed a man he thought to be a beggar turns out to be his father and the queen that he marries is, unfortunately, his mother. After these unfortunate happenings, Eurydice commits suicide and Oedipus blinds himself. The major issue in this story is the ability to choose good over evil, or free will.

The primary theme in the Oedipus Rex tales is undoubtedly the concern of free will within this story. This issue is very tightly bonded to the idea of fate, however the two are juxtaposed. The battle is prevalent in every aspect, due to the fact that the gods give Oedipus a fate from the time of his birth that he will murder his father and kill his mother; by way of his free will he runs from this destiny. Ironically, by running from his fate he runs directly to it. This is very common in ancient Greek writings, they believed in malevolent and petty gods. This leads them to attempt to answer these questions by way of narratives, generally they follow the very same formula: they gods release a mandate on a specific human being, the human runs from this mandate, however, against his will he finally fulfills it. By this time, the Greeks would have already been familiar...

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...a worldview.

From the days in ancient Athens to current society, despite all the technological advances, scientific breakthroughs, and literary accomplishments, humanity has strived to answer simple questions about our basic composition and the supernatural world. Sophocles wrote down Oedipus Rex in attempt to answer these, or at the very least make them know, for the very same reason Wachowski directed the Matrix: in order to display that regardless of what true humanity is, you do not want to attempt to alter this. Human life will go on regardless of how any individual attempts to change it, and as Sophocles and Wachowski display, true humanity may not be exactly what society would like it to think. In attempt to change day to day life, a less attractive reality may be found.

Works Cited

"Christian Symbolism." Symbolism. N.p., 26 Nov. 2003. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.