Sophocles' Oedipus the King

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Fate is the power that controls all of mankind. There is no way to escape the events that are predetermined for man; there is no such thing as free will. Every decision one makes is not their own choosing, but rather an inescapable course of actions foreseen and determined by a higher power. Sometimes prophets or oracles can show the Destiny of others, such as the oracle of Delphi who speaks the words of Apollo the God of Light and Sun. This exact oracle revealed the prophecy of a man by the name of Oedipus, he is smart, he is heroic, but more than any trait he is cursed. Oedipus learned that he shall murder his father and one day marry his mother who in turn will give birth to his children. That is exactly what happened: he ran away from his adopted parents, killed his true father and won his mother’s hand in marriage by defeating the Sphinx. But in the end, Oedipus had no idea he ruined his family, and once he saw the truth, he cut out his own eyes and exiled himself from Thebes. Since the beginning of time the Immortals of Greece have anticipated the birth of Oedipus; throughout his entire life: birth, teenage years, and adulthood the Gods have known his Destiny and they forced him to fulfill his painful prophecy.
In fact, the Men and Women of Olympus, Greek Gods as they are often called, chose Oedipus’ Destiny since his very first breath. Oedipus’ prophecy, originally, had been told to his father, who in turn took every precaution to stop it. This can be demonstrated by Laius’ actions from Jocasta—Laius’s wife—’s point of view:
An oracle came to Laius one fine day
(I won’t say from Apollo himself but his underlings, his priests) and it said that doom would strike him down at the hands of a son, our son, to be born...

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...ht alongside poor Oedipus. Additionally, they will never leave until everything prophesied is completed. As what was stated earlier in the play, “Now as we keep our watch and wait the final day, / count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last”, this quote exemplifies the story of Oedipus because nothing less than death can free Oedipus of the Gods’ involvement in his tragic life(1683-1684). From his first taste of air till his last; Oedipus — The stringed puppet of fate. There was no way for him to break the strings, he evaded death, ran away from home, just to take his father’s life and wed his mother; The Irony? He did not know until the damage had been done. So all in all, everyone knows when their time in life starts, but nobody knows when it ends . . . or what happens in the midst.

Works Cited

Oedipus the King by Sophocles; Translated by Robert Fagles

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