In the tragedy “Oedipus Rex,” Sophocles poses one of the most critical questions of his time – the will of the gods and the free will of man. Mythology, which served as the basis for ancient poetry, especially for tragedy, receives its own interpretation from each tragedian. Sophocles used the myth of the unfortunate King Oedipus to show the clash of the will of the gods and man’s choice. If in the tragedy “Antigone” Sophocles praises the human mind, in the tragedy “Oedipus Rex” he elevates man to an even greater height. It shows the strength of character, the desire of a person to direct life at will. A person cannot avoid the troubles intended by the gods, but the reason for these troubles is the character that manifests itself in actions leading to the fulfillment of the gods’ will. The free will of man and his doom are the principal contradiction in the tragedy “Oedipus Rex.”
This tragedy dwells on the fate of Oedipus, the son of the Theban king Laius. As it is known from the myth, Laius was predicted to die at the hands of his own son. He ordered the baby’s legs to be cut off and thrown away on Mount Kiferon. However, the slave assigned to kill the little prince saved the child, and Oedipus (which means “with swollen legs” in Greek) was raised by the Corinthian king Polybus.
As an adult, Oedipus, having learned from the oracle that he would kill his father and marry his mother, left Corinth, considering the Corinthian king and queen to be his parents. On the way to Thebes, he killed an unknown old man in a quarrel, who turned out to be Laius. Oedipus managed to free Thebes from the monster Sphinx. For this, he was elected king of Thebes and married Jocasta, the widow of Laius, that is, his own mother. For many years, Oedipus enjoyed the well-deserved love of the people.
Then a pestilence happened in the country; the tragedy begins just from the moment when the choir prays to Oedipus to save the city from a terrible calamity. The oracle declared that the cause of this misfortune was a murderer among the citizens who should be expelled. Oedipus strives with all his might to find the criminal, not knowing that he is himself. When Oedipus became aware of the truth, he blinded himself, believing that this was a well-deserved punishment for the crime he had committed.
Oedipus feels his responsibility for the fate of people, for his homeland, and is ready to do everything to stop the pestilence in the country. Thinking only of the state’s good, he suffers at the sight of the citizens ‘ distress. The driving force of his action is the desire to help the weak and suffering people. He considers himself an intermediary between the gods and people and several times calls himself the assistant of the gods. The gods command, their will is implemented by Oedipus, and citizens must obey his orders. Even the priest sees the action of the gods in saving Thebes from the monster, who chose Oedipus as an instrument of their will. However, it is not given to Oedipus to know the gods’ will, and, believing in the prophecy of the priests, he turns to the soothsayer Tiresias. It is important to note that although the gods are strong, but in all actions, Oedipus shows free will in accordance with his character.
Oedipus ‘ parents also tried to avoid the fate predicted by the oracle. From the point of view of human morality, Jocasta, the mother of Oedipus, commits a crime by agreeing to give the infant son to death. From the religious point of view, she commits a crime by showing disregard for the sayings of the oracle. She leads the same skepticism, wanting to distract Oedipus from dark thoughts when she says that she does not believe in the predictions of the gods.
Sophocles recognizes the divine predestination, against which an ordinary man is powerless. In the conditions of the separation of the individual from the society, the philosopher showed a person in an unrestrained desire to evade the predestined, to fight against it. Sophocles rarely brings the gods to the stage; he emphasizes not so much the inevitability of fate but the variability of happiness and the insufficiency of human wisdom. The action of higher forces manifests itself in the natural course of things, which contains the condemnation or justification of a person’s chosen line of conduct.
The source of Sophocles ‘ false choice is not only a conscious violation of policy norms but also ignorance, the limitations of human knowledge. Hence, the mistakes, delusions, self-deception, negligence, and justification of grief, but in suffering, the best qualities of a person are revealed. Therefore, the tragedy “Oedipus Rex” is not a “tragedy of fate,” as the neo-humanists of the XVIII and XIX centuries pointed out, contrasting it with the tragedy of characters. Although man’s dependence on the will of the gods is recognized, at the same time, the freedom of human actions committed “by necessity and probability” prevails.