Oedipus was prophesized to kill his father and marry his mother as warned by the oracle of Apollo. The prophecy would inevitably come to pass, no matter what he might have done to avoid it. His past actions were determined by fate but at the same time his actions in Thebes, he did so on out of his own will. From the beginning, Oedipus took many actions leading to his downfall, Oedipus could have waited for the plague to end, but out of compassion for his people, he had Creon go to Delphi. When he heard Apollo’s prophecy, he could have calmly investigated the murder of King Laius, but in his hastiness, he cursed the murder, and in so, cursing himself.
Oedipus Rex heard from the oracle, when he was an adult that he was going to kill his father and sleep with his mother. Oedipus Rex runs away from Corinth and by coincidence he ends back in Thebes, where originally he is from. Now king and husband in his actual fathers place. Another example is, in this play, the crossroads represents fate and the extraordinary power of prophecy than freedom and choice. A crossroad is a place where a choice has to be made, so crossroads represents moments where decisions will have important consequences but where different choices are still possible.
Oedipus is more or less an illustration that one can’t escape fate and it will hold power no matter what you do. . The Greeks of that time believed that fate could not be changed like when Zeus was tempted in a lliad to change fate by rescuing a favorite person destined to die his wife and daughter talk him out of it, but they also believed that an individual chose his own fate through the decision he made. In this case, I agree that the two go hand in hand. A prophecy foretold that Oedipus was destined to kill his father and marry his mother.
He learns that he is not the biological son of the king, but his “parents” deny it; blinding Oedipus from the truth. There is irony in the story when the blind prophet tells Oedipus the future, but he does not believe that is his fate. He decides to cheat fate and leave the city for King Laius’ safety. Everyone knows that fate always wins, but Oedipus believes that he can get away from it. The blind prophet can see, but Oedipus decides to not see what is shown to him.
Laius’ decision to discard of Oedipus ultimately caused Oedipus to question where he came from and his origin. Oedipus, therefore, went to seek out the Oracle, as his father did, to see what his fate would be. “You are fated to couple with your mother, you will bring a breed of children into the light that no man can bear to see—you will kill your father, the one who gave you life” (Sophocles 873-875). Oedipus’ fate was more horrifying then his fathers and out of fear of his fate coming true, Oedipus flees the city that he believes is his home and leaves the parents that he believes are his own. The fates that were told to the characters start a chain reaction that leads to the fulfillment of their destinies.
However, the more inquiry by the characters; the more negative the play becomes. The knowledge seeking begins before the play even starts. The former King and his Queen make a trip to an oracle, to make an inquiry about their future. What they find out is a very unfortunate truth. Their own son (who has not been born yet) will grow up, and he will kill his father (King Laois) and marry his mother (Queen Jocaste).
She felt very bad that Odysseus was struggling with his journey home to Ithaca, and that the gods felt bad for a person who killed a guy and got killed by that guy’s son. Athena was wondering why they were feeling bad for a guy who deserved his death, whereas Odysseus was just a good ol’ war soldier who helped win the fight against troy. Athena felt obliged to help him. She started with inspiring Telemachus to get rid of the suitors and to set sail to other cities to try and get word on his father, Odysseus, whereabouts, and if he is even alive. Then, Telemachus felt obliged to do as Athena asked of him.
He leaves with intentions to start a new life and forget about the past in the pride land. In hamlet, he tries to figure out if what happened to his father really true and acts as if to be crazy and take revenge on his uncle. Both Simba and Hamlet seem to “lose sight” of their purposes as they get further away from the pain of their father's death. Scar (The Lion King) and Claudius (“Hamlet”) are both uncles who are jealous of their brothers who are two great leaders. These two characters conspired against their brothers so they can become king (even if it meant death).
Additionally, Oedipus lacks the same unwillingness to accept reality. He was unknowingly born the prince of Thebes. At birth his parents gave him up for adoption in the fear that the prophecy of him killing his father and marrying his mother would come true. As he grows older, with his adoptive parents in Corinth, the oracle at Delphi tells him the same prophecy. He doesn’t want to believe it but he still runs away to the city of Thebes where along the way he kills a poor highway man.
First, in Oedipus at Colonus, there is the oracle at Delphi that tells Oedipus’s parents and then himself that he will kill his father and marry his mother. It does end up happening, proving divine intervention occurs. Later, the prophet Tiresias tells Oedipus exactly what the oracle did, making himself another example of divine will, that is, the gods speak through him. Divine intervention is abundant in Oedipus at Colonus, too. In it, Oedipus tries to gain sympathy for himself by saying all the sins he committed in the previous play were the work of fate, thus proving the point of divine intervention in Oedipus the King.