Destiny, Fate, Free Will and Free Choice in Oedipus the King Essay exam

The Concept of Fate in Oedipus Rex To the first-time reader of Sophocles tragedy, Oedipus Rex, it seems that the gods are in complete domination of mankind. This essay will seek to examine that this is not the case because the presence of a tragic flaw within the protagonist is shown to be the cause of his downfall. In the opening scene of the tragedy the priest of Zeus itemizes for the king what the gods have done to the inhabitants of Thebes A beset is on our harvest in the ear, A blight upon the grazing flocks and herds, A blight on wives in travail and withal Armed with his shine torch the God of Plague Hath swooped upon our city emptying The house of Cadmus, and the sloppy realm Of Pluto is full fed with groans and tears. The power of the gods seems quite terrible in their ability to inflict great injuries such as these on the population. King Oedipus, seeing Creon returning from the oracle at Delphi, addresses a sketch prayer to King Apollo as the ultimate source of assistance in time of trial O King Apollo may his joyous looks /Be presage of the joyous news he brings Creon brings to Thebes the message of the gods from the oracle allow me report then all the god declared. /King Phoebus bids us straitly destroy /A fell pollution that infests the land, /And no more harbor an usual sore. The gods know that Oedipus is a pollution, a sore, which must be gotten rid of, expelled from Thebes. Charles Segal in Oedipus Tyrannus Tragic resolution and the Limits of Knowledge supports this view In his maturation strength Oedipus begins to act as the ritual scapegoat, the pharmakos, the figure who is ritually wealthy with all... ...s Rex, edited by Michael J. OBrien. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. Segal, Charles. Oedipus Tyrannus Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge. New York Twayne Publishers, 1993. Sophocles In Literature of the Western World, edited by Brian Wilkie and pile Hurt. NewYork Macmillan Publishing C o., 1984. Sophocles. Oedipus Rex. Transl. by F. Storr. no pag. http//etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/browse-mixed new?tag=public&images=images/modeng& information=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&part=0&id=SopOedi - - Spengler, Oswald. Tragedy Classical vs. Western. In Sophocles A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Thomas Woodard. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. new wave Nortwick, Thomas. Oedipus The Meaning of a Masculine Life. Norman, OK University of Oklahoma Press, 1998.