Oedipus the King

Oedipus the King

Being born with a terrible prophecy, having parents send out for death, surviving death, living in a entirely lie, does it sounds like fate or is it made by decisions? In the play Oedipus the king there is a deliberation in whether Oedipus life is simply just fate with an incapacity to change it or if he chooses his fate by the choices and decisions he formulates. There is no right or wrong answer and in this case there is evidence supporting both fate and choice. Oedipus never asked to be born, therefore does not deserve to have such a tragic destiny, but it could be possible that he was destine to die as a baby and it only took the choice of a shepherd to change Oedipus’s fate.

In the beginning of the play a priest pleads Oedipus to help them again from a terrible plague as he had done before: “Again now Oedipus, our greatest power, we plead with you, as suppliants, all of us, to find us strength , whether from a god’s response or learned in some way from another man. I know that the experienced among men give counsels that will prosper best of all Noblest of men lift up our land again! Think also of yourself; since now the land calls you its Savior for your zeal of old, oh let us never look back at your rule as men helped up only to fall again!” The city was in desperate need of his help. He was the smart one that solved the riddle of Sphinx , so that meant he was the only one who would be able to help. Oedipus did not do anything against the city of Thebes, on the contrary, he kept Thebes out of trouble. It was not Oedipus fault he was so wise, although, he did choose his fate by deciding to runaway from Corinth and into Thebes. Even though he did decide to runaway, he did not know what life was expecting for him and since he had already heard from someone that he had a curse and would kill his father and marry his mother, he thought it was for the best of everybody to run far away from his supposedly parents to stay away from the curse. It ended up worse leaving Corinth and arriving at Thebes because the curse came all true.

After receiving the notice about the second terrible plague, Oedipus wanted to know the cause of it. He sends Creon, his brother-in-law, to find out the reason for the contagious fevers, bad farming, dead animals, and emotional women who can’t produce offspring because of this plague. Creon finally finds out and he tells Oedipus: “We must banish or murder to free ourselves from a murder that blows storms through the city. My Lord, a king named Laius ruled our land before you came to steer the city straight. Since he was murdered,