Our Decisions and a Predetermined Fate: Oedipus the King

Since the dawn of time prophecies have supposedly been passed down directly from the gods unto the prophets. In the ancient Grecian time, god’s word was worshipped and fate was all but fact. In the bible, Moses was one of the most famous prophets. In the 1500s, Nostradamus, who was a French apothecary and seer, wrote an entire collection of prophecies. Throughout history there have been theses men and many more who claimed to know details about the future. Why would so many prophecies become world renowned if there were no truths to them? More importantly, does fate even exist? I believe that people have the will to make their own choices and make decisions throughout their daily life however no matter what choices we make the outcomes will remain the same. We can make whatever decisions we want but our decisions will take us to the same predetermined fate. The play, Oedipus the King, demonstrates this because no matter how far Oedipus chooses to run he was still victimized by fate.

When Oedipus was born, Jocasta and Laius heard a prophecy that their son would murder his father and sleep with his mother. They quickly sought to get rid of their newborn and, through the paths of a few messengers; he was given to the king and queen of Corinth. When Oedipus was growing up, he saw an oracle who told him of the very same prophecy and quickly fled the land of Corinth in fear of harming the ones he loved. Unbeknownst to him, on his journey, he still ended up killing his father, King Laius and marrying his own mother, Jocasta. Through a shepherd, Oedipus learns that King Laius and Jocasta are his biological parents. In the shock of learning what he had only recently started suspecting, Oedipus exclaims:

Woe, woe upon me! ...

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...od’s word was taken as fate and fate was god’s word. I believe people have free will to an extent; they can make own choices during their everyday life yet, no matter what choices we make our decisions will take us to the same predetermined fate. In the play, Oedipus the King, Oedipus ran his whole life trying to escape the fate of marrying his mother and killing his father, and yet it still occurred even though he tried his best to prevent it. In the 16th century, Nostradamus wrote a collection of prophecies that consists of events beginning at his time up until many years from now, many of which have been found to have correlation with major world events. Why would so many prophecies become world renowned if there were no truths to them? The answer to this is simple; there are truths in prophecies, but just how we get to this final fate is of our own free will.