Karima Jackson

Literature Humanities Final paper

Vangelis Calotychos
Due Date: December 14, 2009

Title Yet to be Decided

The German philosopher Karl Reinhardt once said that, For Sophocles, as for the Greeks
of an earlier age, fate is in no circumstances the same as predetermination, but a spontaneous
unfolding of daimonic power (qtd. in Segal 77). Under such a definition, it seems natural to
then question fates role in Oedipus the king. Despite Oedipuss attempt to evade the ominous
terms of the prediction of killing his father and marrying his mother, he inadvertently fulfills the
prophesy. Oedipus is often So why is it that, no matter how much he tries, he cannot escape fate?
It is because his character traits make him especially susceptible to carrying out a divine plan.
There are those who doubt the role of fate in Oedipus because they assume that his
arrogance and thirst for answers alone are to blame for his downfall. They attribute his curiosity
with arrogance. But this is an unfair and blow up of Oedipuss pride as a mere mortal. From the
very beginning of the play (before he becomes upset at the climax) he is humble. He does not
only prove to be arrogant, but proves to be obedient to the gods in many situations and never
puts himself on their level. An example of this is when the chorus hears what is going on
between Creon and Oedipus in the very beginning of the act and they decide to call on the gods
for help with the plague. He does promise to solve the issue of the plague, but he does so always
keeping the gods in mind and gives them ultimate power. In his speech to the chorus, he
acknowledges his mortal limits:

For I would not

be far upon the track if I alone
were tracing it without a clue. But now,
since after all was finished, I became
a citizen among you, citizens(Sophocles #)
He both shows his humility and his connection with the people of Thebes, as if they were his
fellow people. This is not exactly the action an arrogant person would take. He even shows
immense respect and adoration to Teiresias when he first arrives on the scene. Oedipus states that
the blind prophet is well-rounded in knowledge and that in you alone we find a champion
(Sophocles line 304) admitting that he himself is not all that great because there exists a greater
person. Also, he is reaching out for help here. It can be argued that he is arrogant because he
denies Teiresiass foresight, and so, thinks he is better than the profit. But this is simply not true;
it is understandable that he would react that way since he is human and went through such
lengths to avoid the prophesy. Of course he would be in disbelief at the suggestion of having, in
fact, done the evil deeds that he really tried to avoid. And this disbelief might have made him act
out of character because he is a mere human who clings to rational calculation and the logic of
noncontraditcion (one cannot be equal to many) (Segal 118). So naturally, when he finds out
that danger lies ahead despite the precautions he takes, he cannot make sense of what Teiresias
said and flips out. This explains the reason he becomes so suspicious when teirseias is talking
about creon and he becomes silent and Oedipus becomes certain that teirseas is covering up
creons blame