Sophocles' play Oedipus the King gives us an example of how our destiny is set when we are born. It was prophesied when Oedipus was born that he was destined to one-day kill his father, marry his mother and have children, and then she would die at his hand. Grief stricken, Oedipus left his hometown to prevent this from happening. Oedipus did not know that the king and queen who raised him were not his birth parents, and eventually he ended up fulfilling his destiny by killing his real father, marrying his real mother and having children,and when she found out that Oedipus was in fact her very own flesh and blood, she took her life. Oedipus had nothing to do with the circumstances that unfolded in his life and could not be blamed for what happened, but the choices he made, by searching for the cause of the plague and then for the one responsible for the murder of King Laios led to his downfall.
Cadmus Sowing the Dragon's teeth, by Maxfield Parr...
King of Greece & family (LOC)
Oedipus and the Sphinx of Thebes, Red Figure Kylix...I believe the universal lesson in this tragic play is that in this world there is an uncontrollable force that creates a path for each individual to follow and this path is known as fate, an irreversible fact of life. In one of the greatest Greek tragedies, Oedipus the King, Oedipus attempts to alter his own fate to avoid the horrific destiny plan.
In my view the play Oedipus the King has a universal theme, because it supports the fact that it is human nature to strive for answers. To assign cause and explain disaster and to moralize and justify. When something bad happens we automatically feel that we have done something wrong (assume blame) and we are being punished, and when something good happens to us we feel we did the right thing...