19 December 2001
A tale from the most ancient times of history, Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex" tells of the life and downfall of a well-loved king. A prophecy issued before Oedipus' birth dooms him to a tragic end, though only because of the various reactions to the foretelling. Everyone considers the prophecy gravely serious, yet at the same time they each believe that the words of an oracle can be opposed. Oedipus' nature leads him to fight the prophecy in the only way he can fathom - by running away from the problem and distancing himself as greatly as possible. From his nature come choices made and decisions avoided, many of which become essential in the realization of the prophecy. Where events occur in spite of what Oedipus may decide, the choices of others play a vital role in determining his fate. The Fates themselves interfere no more than to choose a prophecy which will, simply by being told, cause Oedipus and his family to bring tragedy upon themselves and live out the prophecy unaware. Oedipus' choices as a result of his inherent nature, coupled with the decisions of those around him, lead to the realization of the oracle's prophecy.
Respected greatly by his people, Oedipus naturally exercises great pride and welcomes responsibility. When the Sphinx threatens Thebes, Oedipus challenges and defeats the beast, earning himself the throne of that country and the hand of Jocasta, the queen. When great famine and infertility - of land and women - befall the country, the people turn to Oedipus to find a cure for such a sweeping disease, and he answers:
I know you are all sick,Oedipus readily accepts responsibility for his people's hardships, taking great pride in his claim that he feels a pain as great as that of all his people together. When Oedipus finds that the remedy prescribed by the Gods involves avenging the death of the former king Laius, he sets out to find and banish the perpetrator. And when Oedipus discovers that he himself killed the former king, thinking the ruler to be a random traveler at the time, he does not allow himself to be absolved of punishment and so claws his eyes out and banishes himself from Thebes. His pride and need to bear responsibility would not allow him to do otherwise.
yet there is not one of you, sick though you are,
that is as sick as I myself.
Your several sorrows each have single scope
and touch but one of you. My spirit groans
for city and myself and you at once.
You have not roused me like a man from sleep;
know that I have given many tears to this,
gone many ways wandering in thought,
but as I thought I found only one remedy
and that I took. (Lines 68-78)
Oedipus bears a great share of the responsibility in making the prophecy come to pass, and responsibility is not something he can easily ignore. When he first hears the prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his mother, he tries to assume complete responsibility for the problem by distancing himself from his parents, thinking that in doing so he has foiled the Fates' designs. As Oedipus explains to his wife,
But Phoebus sent me home again unhonouredOedipus does not consider until then end that the parents who raised him could be distinct from those of whom he had been born. So, either out of disgust or for love of his foster parents, Oedipus decides to take responsibility by running away, though the idea may seem contradictory. By not even consulting with his foster parents, Oedipus loses any chance to learn the truth and, more importantly, relinquishes any control he may have formerly had over the situation. Later, when Oedipus comes upon his true father unawares, he kills the stranger over a simple matter of pride, as Oedipus describes:
in what I came to learn, but he foretold
other and desperate horrors to befall me,
that I was fated to lie with my mother,
and show to daylight an accursed breed
which men would not endure, and I was doomed
to be murderer of the father that begot me.
When I heard this I fled, and in the days
that followed I would measure from the stars
the whereabouts of Corinth-yes, I fled
to somewhere where I should not see fulfilled
the infamies told in that dreadful oracle. (Lines 862-873)
When I was near the branching of the crossroads,No obligation but his own overwhelming pride forces Oedipus to kill his father. Perhaps life is harsh in the days of ancient Greece, but killing a group of men over the matter of being pushed aside from the road seems excessive and unjust. And having heard and known his prophecy, Oedipus could very effectively prevent such a deception simply by vowing to never kill anyone. Because of his fundamental nature, though, Oedipus attempts to take the entire burden of the prophecy upon himself, refusing any others the chance to help, and due to his pride managed to show himself incapable of bearing that responsibility, bringing the prophecy to truth.
going on foot, I was encountered by
a herald and a carriage with a man in it,
just as you tell me. He that led the way
and the old man himself wanted to thrust me
out of the road by force. I became angry
and struck the coachman who was pushing me.
When the old man saw this he watched his moment,
and as I passed he struck me from his carriage,
full on the head with his two pointed goad.
But he was paid in full and presently
my stick had struck him backwards from the car
and he rolled out of it. And then I killed them
all. (Lines 877-890)
Other characters, such as Oedipus' parents, encounter an equal level of difficulty in bearing responsibility. Knowing by the word of the oracle that his first-born son will someday kill him, Oedipus' father, Laius, seeks to prevent the prophecy by bringing Oedipus to an early death. Jocasta, Oedipus' wife and mother, says to him that as for her son,
... before three days were outSuch is a cruel act to perform against one's own child even with one's life at stake. The option to raise his son in spite of the oracle and accept his fate with a clean conscience remains open to Laius, in which case the prophecy would not come to pass as it does, if at all. And if Laius simply cannot allow himself to die even for the sake of his own son, he can assure the death of his son by attending to the problem himself. Instead of dealing with the problem, though, Laius decides to avoid confronting the prophecy by entrusting his life to the willingness of another to kill a newborn child - an invitation for trouble. Though the herdsman to who the task is appointed could actually carry this out, he can hardly be blamed for not doing so. When Oedipus asks how the herdsman had given him away as a child, the herdsman responds emphatically,
after his birth King Laius pierced his ankles
and by the hands of others cast him forth
upon a pathless hillside. (Lines 779-782)
O master,Long after the fact, the herdsman seems to regret his good deed which allowed Oedipus to live and the prophecy to come true. But the burden is placed on him unfairly by Oedipus' parents who seek to flee responsibility for the prophecy, a decision for which they pay dearly - with their lives. The actions and decisions of all those involved play a very significant role in shaping the fate of Oedipus.
I pitied it, and thought that I could send it
off to another country and this man
was from another country. But he saved it
for the most terrible troubles. If you are
the man he says you are, you're bred to misery. (Lines 1244-1249)
The prophecy of the oracle only comes about as a result of the varied reactions on the part of Oedipus and all those involved. The Fates themselves play a very minor yet critical role, merely making a declaration which may be ignored or attended. The Fates must be great indeed to wield with such strong force a weapon composed entirely of the words of prophets. For an Oedipus of a different nature, a completely distinct prophecy would have been required to achieve the same tragic result. Otherwise, the prophecy would not have come true and the credibility of the Fates would be lost. The Fates designed their prophecy as a weapon specifically crafted to trigger Oedipus' destruction by way of his inherent nature - because of his fatal flaws. This suggests that the entire purpose of the prophecy is to punish Oedipus for being who he is, as determined by the Fates even before his birth.
Sophocles. "Oedipus the King." Trans. David Grene. The Norton Introduction to Literature. Peter Simon, ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998. 1714-1754.