Who Is Oedipus Responsible For His Own Destiny

Oedipus Rex is one of the best known plays written by the famous Greek writer Sophocles (Sophocles 737). This tragic play tells the story of Oedipus who is a king that wants to rid his kingdom of a plague. In an attempt to get to the bottom of this plague problem Oedipus calls in a Prophet named Tiresias. Tiresias, who is extremely cryptic with his statements says to Oedipus, “You weave your own doom” (748). While this statement is specifically targeted at Oedipus, it can also be understood as a general assertion that people are responsible for their own destiny. Oedipus Rex partially supports Tiresias’s assertion about the connection between destiny and responsibility which is evident through various decisions made by the characters in the

Oedipus promises to promptly save the kingdom from the plague and says, “I have sent Kreon…To Delphi, Apollo’s place of revelation to learn there, if he can, what act or pledge of mine may save the city” (739). This decision of sending Kreon results in Oedipus discovering several facts later on in the play. Particularly, the one where he learns that Laios and Iokaste were his real parents and that the prophecy of Oedipus murdering his father and sleeping with his mother had been legitimate. Therefore, it is Oedipus’s own promptness and decision-making that convinces him to send Kreon to the Delphi and eventually learn the truth. This is one example where the play supports the assertion about the connection between destiny and

However, when Oedipus questioned who his real parents were, Polybus and Merope chose to lie instead of revealing the truth. Recalling the event where he questioned Polybus and Merope, Oedipus tells Iokaste, “At a feast, a drunken man marauding in his cups cries out that I [Oedipus] am not my father’s son…The next day I visited my father and mother, and questioned them. They stormed, calling it all the slanderous rant of a fool” (758). Oedipus, who was still skeptical, went to the Delphi where he ended up discovering the prophecy. Fearing that the prophecy was real he left Corinth to distance himself from his parents which subsequently led to the events in this play. If Polybus and Merope had not lied to Oedipus and had told him who his real parents were he would have tried to distance himself from his real parents and not the ones pretending to be. The fact that Polybus and Merope did lie got Oedipus closer to fulfilling the prophecy. Therefore, it was the decision made by Polybus and Merope that made Oedipus leave Corinth as Oedipus says, “I heard all this, and fled. And from that day Corinth to me was only in the stars” (759). This example is similar to the previous example, as it was someone else’s, more precisely, Polybus’s and Merope’s decision that drove Oedipus out and affected his