How Does Oedipus Control His Destiny

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Oedipus Rex, also known as Oedipus the King is a Greek tragedy written by Sophocles and first performed in 429 BC. A main theme found in the play is inescapable fate and how no matter how hard you try, you can never run away from destiny. Despite trying to change their future, Jocasta, Laius, and Oedipus find themselves right where they are supposed to be. In Oedipus the King, the contrast between man seeking to control his destiny and the external forces shaping his destiny is clearly depicted. The implication is that man must submit to his fate. In the struggle to avoid it, he becomes more entangled. Oedipus had a great life living in Corinth; he was raised by Polybus and Merope, the king and queen, like he was their own child. From the moment he got into their care they raised him like their own son, never once telling him that he was adopted. One day at a feast a drunk man went up to Oedipus and said that he was actually …show more content…

This news just makes Oedipus believe Jocasta when she says that the oracle tells lies and that he should not believe it. “Why should a man respect the Pythian hearth, or / Give heed to the birds that jangle above his head? / They prophesied that I should kill Polybus, / kill my own father; but he is dead and buried, / And I am here - I never touched him, never, / Unless he died of grief for my departure, / And this, in a sense, through me. No. Polybus / Has packed the oracles off with him underground. / They are empty words.” (Ant 2.916-924) Upon hearing this Oedipus believed that he had been lied to by the oracle. There was no way he could have killed his own father in Corinth all the way from his city of Thebes. But when the messenger continues to talk he tells Oedipus that he is not actually the son of Polybus and that he came from Laius. Hearing this news devastated Oedipus because it revealed the truth about who he was and what he had

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