The significance of fate in Oedipus Tyrannos is to demonstrate that even though a person may do everything in their power to avoid their fates, they will always come to pass. As a precursor to the play, Oedipus is given the fate at the Oracle of Delphi that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Distressed, he leaves for Thebes to try and avoid his fate. On the way into town, he finds himself behind a slowly moving chariot. He gets angry and ends up killing the man. A few years later, Tiresias tells Oedipus that he had in fact married his mother and killed his father. Turns out that when Oedipus was born, his parents, king and queen Laius, received the same prophecy. When they received it, they sent Oedipus away. The murder of king Laius