| Many people today confuse fate with a destiny meant for some kind of love or fortune. The Greeks, however, saw fate as the terrifying and unstoppable force that determined their future. | |
| The first encounter of fate in Oedipus the King occurred when King Laius and Queen Jocasta were given a prophecy about their child and how he would one day kill his father and marry his mother. Killing ones father and then marrying their mother was considered one of the most heinous acts a person could commit in ancient Greece. The king and queen took their baby child away and left him to die on a hilltop. This is where the intervention of fate begins. It seems as though the king could have simply killed his son instead of having him left on the hill to die; it was fate that their son would live. He was later given to a shepard who took him in and brought him up as his own (Paul Roche). This first prophecy is key in understanding the dominance of fate in Oedipus; without it there would have been no way for the king and queen to know about their sons chosen future. | |
Introduction < Back | What is fate? | Next > Oedipal prophesies fulfilled
| |