WRT

Yousef AlAbdulQader

Professor: Dale Woodiel

11/26/2018

Sophoclean

The story of Oedipus impresses me the most. A kindly shepherd found the baby. He gave

the baby to a friend, who took it to Corinth, another town. (Corinth reappears in the New

Testament.) The king and queen of Corinth couldn't have a baby of their own. So, they adopted

the foundling.

Nobody ever told little Oedipus that his mother was never pregnant. One day, after he

had grown up, a drunk mentioned his being adopted. Oedipus questioned his parents, but they

denied it. Oedipus visited various oracles to find out whether he was really adopted. All the

oracles told him instead that he would kill his father and marry his mother. (None of this makes

much sense. Again, don't worry about it. This is a folk tale.)

To thwart the oracles, Oedipus left Corinth permanently. (Again, don't worry. Yes,

Oedipus should have considered that, since he might be adopted, any older man might be his

father and any older woman his mother. But this is a folk tale.)

Oedipus experience with his parents meant him toleave.Oedipus continues his

questioning. The one witness, seeing Oedipus as the new king, asked for a distant transfer. He

was a good man, and Jocasta didn't know why he wanted away, but she granted his request.

Oedipus tells his story. He was going to the oracles to find out whether he was adopted.

All of them told him simply that he would kill his father and marry his mother. As he was

traveling alone at the place Jocasta has mentioned, he met a group of men going in the opposite

direction. The men, including the leader, started insulting him. Sophocles makes it sound like a

gang of rough men just hassling a lone stranger for fun. One of the men shoved Oedipus.

Oedipus punched him back. The leader struck Oedipus treacherously on the back of the head

with the horse staff; Oedipus turned and hit the leader in the chest with his own staff, knocking

him out of the chariot. Then Oedipus managed to kill them all except for the one who ran away.

It was justifiable, self-defense. But Oedipus is devastated. He says he must be the killer

of Louis, and he is ashamed that he has been having sex with his victim's wife. Oedipus says

"This is too terrible to have happened naturally -- it must be the malicious work of some god or

other." He says he will simply leave the city, now, and let the plague end. He adds that he cannot

go back to Corinth, for fear of killing his own father and marrying his own mother (Kirkwood,

2007).

Predestination takes place if something was going to happen, it would happen and there

was nothing you could do about it. Ancient people may have been impressed (or wanted to be

impressed) by the fulfillment of prophecies. In our own world, most predictions by supposed

"psychics" simply don't come true. But people want to believe in the supernatural, and people

like to tell each other about the rare occasions when something happens that a psychic said

would happen. So, money-making "psychics" make lots of predictions and keep them vague.

Believing in predestination frees people from worry. Talking about unalterable destiny is

extremely popular among soldiers going into battle -- a powerful antidote to obsessive fear that

would slow or distract a warrior. Soldiers tell each other, "If the bullet has your name on it, you

will die." This seems to spur them on to bravery, self-sacrifice, peace-of-mind, and warm

camaraderie. Talk about "fate", "predestination", and so forth has found its way into warriors'

tales across many cultures. In the Iliad, even Zeus is sometimes subject to "Fate" We also see

this in peacetime, whenever people face frightful conflict.

Most Christians believe that we are responsible for our behavior even though God knows

what we will do. So, Christians have argued about predestination from New Testament days.

Reference

Kirkwood, G.M. (2007). A review of Recent Sophoclean Studies ( 1945-1956). The

classical Weekly, 50 ( 12),157-172.