Destiny, Fate, Free Will and Free Choice
The Damning Prophecies in Oedipus, Antigone, and Agamemnon
Oracles, seers, and prophets are used in Greek tragedy to provide foreshadowing for the audience and characters. The seers' wisdom is conveyed through the pronouncement of oracles or prophecies. They confer forecasts to principal characters that affect the characters' future. Although not always believed, and often endeavored to be foiled, seers, oracles, and prophets in Greek tragedies foretell events that greatly affect the lives of prominent characters. Cassandra in Aeschylus' Agamemnon, the Oracle at Delphi in Sophocles' Oedipus, and Teiresias in Sophocles' Antigone pronounce damning prophecies that, despite ignorance, evasion, ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...Shortly after Cassandra reveals her visions Agamemnon is murdered by Clytemnestra. Agamemnon cries: "o–oh! I am hit. . . mortally hit. . . within." p82 Agamemnon dies despite his ignorance of the prophecy.
The Oracle at Delphi in Oedipus predicts the downfall and destruction of Oedipus, despite Oedipus' avoidance of the prophecy. Oedipus recalls the Oracle as stating: "that I [Oedipus] was fated to defile my mother's bed, that I should show unto men a brood which they could not endure to behold, and that I should be the slayer of the sire who begot me." When Oedipus learns of the calamitous oracle his immediate intentions are to thwart it. He leaves Polybus of Corinth, whom Oedipus believes to be his father, and travels to Thebes to avoid fulfilling the ruinous prophecy. When he arrives at Thebes Oedipus is falsely assured of his intellect when he solves the riddle of the Sphinx and is appointed king. Oedipus then believes that he has successfully avoided the Oracle.
Oedipus' hubris, impulsiveness, and carelessness compel him to murder the man unbeknown by him to be his father over a traffic dispute, in total disregard of the prophecy. After he arrives in Thebes and solves the riddle of the Sphinx, Oedipus unbeknownst to him marries his mother. Despite his attempted evasion of the Oracle by leaving Corinth, the oracle inevitably comes true. Oedipus' only recourse to console himself is to poke
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