The Greeks believed that they were controlled by fate, or destiny, and that they could not escape it. Oedipus’ fate was that he would murder his father and marry his mother. He moved away from his, not known to him, adoptive father in order to protect him and wound up murdering his birth father, King Laios of Thebes. After Laios’ death, Oedipus married the widowed queen Jocasta, not knowing that she is his birth mother. Some believe, because he was ignorant of his crimes, that he is innocent. This is simply not the case. Just because a person does not know they committed a crime, does not mean said person is innocent. For example, if today a person in a drunken state killed another person and woke up the next morning not remembering anything, does that excuse them from their crime? This is similar to the predicament that Oedipus finds himself in. Not only did he kill his father, but the entire company with Laios except for one sole survivor. Even though he does not remember killing multiple men, and he could not get away from his …show more content…
Jocasta is King Laios’ now widowed wife and queen. It was considered normal for Oedipus, the hero of Thebes, to marry the queen of Thebes after her husband’s death. However, it was unknown that Jocasta was in fact Oedipus’ birth mother. When the information was found out, Jocasta hung herself. She “wail[ed] for the double fruit of her marriage, [a] husband by her husband, children by her child” (Sophocles 68). Oedipus yelled “Ah God! It was true! All the prophecies!...Oedipus, damned in his birth, in his marriage damned, [d]amned in the blood he shed with his own hand” (Sophocles 64). He then proceeded to blind himself because he could not find joy in the world around him. Based upon his and Jocasta’s reactions, he seems to feel extremely guilty and unhappy about marrying his mother, even if it was his