What Is Oedipus Predetermined Fate

Throughout the story of “Oedipus the King” there is mainly one lesson, one purpose that explains how people’s predetermined fate is inevitable and they cannot avoid it. As Greek philosopher Citium Zeno tells us “Fate is the endless chain of causation, whereby things are; the reason or formula by which the world goes on.” This simply says that the way things are in the world is because of how people follow their fates, and that is why the world works altogether. Sophocles, the author of “Oedipus the King” tells a story that explains how a man, Oedipus, was born with a fate of killing his father and marrying his mother. And he was sent away to be killed so that fate could never be true, but he survives and is adopted by the king and queen of

They believed very strongly in these prophecies, mostly because they came from the gods and they were in turn afraid of the gods. But in this story specifically Apollo the sun god was the one granting these prophecies from a cave in a distant mountain, he is also referred to as the Oracle of Delphi in the story. The Oracle played a major role in the story, and the first time it told the fate of Oedipus was when his father Laius went to the Oracle and was told that Oedipus would kill his father and lie with his mother. The story says “There was an oracle once that came to Laius, and it told him that it was fate that he should die a victim at the hands of his own son, a son to be born of Laius and me. But, see, the king was killed by foreign highway robbers at a place where three roads meet - so the story goes. And for the son, before three days were out after his birth King Laius pierced his ankles and had him cast out upon a hillside to die.”(11 ) So when Laius heard this he immediately sent his son to be sent away and killed before the prophecy could have any chance of happening. This just shows you the extent to what people would go to because the believed so strongly in these prophecies. Also even Oedipus took this to the extreme also when he ran away from his adopted parents when he heard his inevitable prophecy. The story says “ I had to fly and in my

Denying this though Oedipus to the blind man (Tiresias) “I was fated to lie with my mother, and show to daylight… When I heard this I fled- yes I fled to somewhere I should not see fulfilled the infamies in that dreaded oracle.” (13) Oedipus is explaining here how he tried to runaway from his home after being told by the oracle, which was a cave in the mountain that told young men and women the fates they seek in the future. But soon enough we learn that Oedipus’s fate had already happened without him knowing this entire time. And Oedipus figures this out because of a shepherd that told him he took him from his father Laius as a child to be sent away and killed, but feeling bad for the child the shepherd gave him away to a friend who then took him to his adopted parents of Corinth. After this news came to light Oedipus shrieks “ O, O, O they will all come, all come out clearly!” (19) Meaning the truth will come out so clearly, and that it will be revealed to everyone what he had done. So this part of the story shows how fate will come back at you if you try to avoid it just like Oedipus tried to and now regrets everything he has