Oedipus The King Essay, Research Paper

Every man s life is destined. Some men are told and some are left to discover on their own. Oedipus was one of the few who was told and he took it upon himself to take his fate into his own hands. In the gods eyes, this was a major attack upon them, and justifiably so. In Oedipus the King, Sophocles justifies the gods actions by dramatizing the effects of Oedipus choices to avoid his god-given predestined fate. Once Oedipus made the decision to avoid his fate, the gods then decided to punish him for his disrespect by altering his fate to a much more painful and miserable existence.

The gods made a lot of prophecies that led to the Oedipus s downfall. All of these doings by the gods is what changed his fate. The gods, for instance, sent down the sphinx, and guided Oedipus to answer the riddle correctly. Just as they steered Teiresias away from the correct answer to the riddle or the ability to detect the killer. Apollo was the one to set this whole disaster up by telling Oedipus to find the killer. These are the cruel acts of the gods, who are punishing Oedipus for his attempt to escape his fate in the first place. This just goes to show that the gods are ones to be respected and they re there to almost keep a certain order about things.

The real tragedy in the play is the harsh reality that Oedipus comes to learn after this long journey that has ended with pain and suffering. I believe that once Oedipus decided to try and escape the fate that has already been laid out for him, the gods decided to make an example out of him. There are certain choices that in everyone must make sooner or later in their life that will alter their existence forever. This just happened to be the time for Oedipus to make that decision. His problems with knowledge also aided in his poor decision. Those who think that they know everything or too much usually are the ones who do not know enough or have been searching for the wrong kind of knowledge for their whole existence. So in a sense, he brought this upon himself, but certainly, not without the gods playing the major role in aiding Oedipus s harsh and cruel downfall.

The golden age was definitely a time for thinkers and many new ideas about myth and gods. Greeks had to have been questioning what they really believed. Where the gods real? Do we really believe in myth? Through different myths we have learned that it was unheard of to question the gods, and this was a time when this taboo topic started to come about. Sophocles Oedipus the King demonstrates what happens to those who believe that they have figured out man, or those who go against the majority and try to persuade others that their ideas are superior to others. Sophocles was proving that the gods were very malicious creatures when they wanted to be, and questioning them is considered to be a vicious attack against them. In previous myths we learned that people practiced this concept of xenia, to make sure that the gods were not disrespected in any way. When the existence of the gods was being questioned Sophocles really set out to remind people that the gods do exist and play an important role in keeping order in society. His work almost reinforces the concept of always be on your best behavior, otherwise you shall be punished.

In conclusion, Sophocles justifies the ways of the gods by proving that the gods had good reason to punish Oedipus. He attempted to escape his predestined fate, and in doing this created hostile gods who were out to seek revenge. This just reinforces the ideas that the all mighty powerful gods do exist and need to be respected the same way they have been respected in the past.