Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

Carrie A. Bailey

Leonardi

English Literature

November 6, 2007

Oedipus Rex

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles’ is one of the more abnormal, while still very interesting, works of ancient Greek drama. One of the main questions a reader will face while reading this play is whether one person’s fate is determined by the Gods, or by his or her own decisions and actions. Oedipus, the title character, had the events of his future predicted by the oracle of Delphi at the very beginning of his life. When Oedipus learns of this prediction, he flees his kingdom in hopes of avoiding his tragic destiny. Ironically, running only helped to manifest the very same fate he was trying to escape. The reader soon realizes that no matter what Oedipus did, he couldn’t escape inevitability. Oedipus Rex gives a look into the past to show its audience how critically the gods’ were taken in this time period.

When Oedipus was born, it was stated that he would murder his father and marry his mother. After learning of this, Laios bound the infant Oedipus’s ankles and left him with Iocoste, who asked a herdsman to bring the infant to a mountaintop to die. The fear of the Oracle’s predictions cause Oedipus’s parents to act harshly; although unknowingly, the herdsman did not carry out his