What is free will in 'Oedipus Rex' and 'The Iliad'?

Answer 1

The choice between actions that nevertheless lead to the same outcome or that produce the same result is what free will is in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.) and "The Iliad" by Homer (fl. 8th B.C.E.).

Specifically, each individual has a customized destiny in ancient Greece. The particular paths by which individualized fates are fulfilled may be variable. But the range of choices and deeds results in all mortals ending exactly where the Furies of fate prophecy that they will be.

Answer 2

That free will acts in fact lead to the outcome favored by determinism is the paradoxical tension between determinism and free will in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the term determinism describes a universe in which the course of human lives is determined, not by freely chosen human actions, but by forces beyond human control. The term paradox describes a truth that is contradicted by a deeper truth. The descriptions fit Theban King Oedipus' paradoxically freely chosen actions that lead him to the very unfortunate end that fateful prophesies predict.

Answer 3

Free will plays the ironic role of helping Theban King Oedipus to suffer from the very fate that his free will actions are intended to avoid. Free will refers to the ability of individuals to ponder over and make their own choices. Theban King Oedipus exercises free will. He freely chooses to run away from home upon hearing of a horrible fate in store for him. So he freely chooses not to find out whether the father that he's fated to kill and the mother that he's fated to marry are or are not the Corinthian monarchs whom he thinks to be his biological parents. He freely chooses not to check this out despite a recent rumor that King Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth are his foster parents, and he their adopted son.

Just as freely does Oedipus choose to respond in violent kind to a man who's old enough to be his father and whom he resembles. Then he freely chooses to marry a royal widow who's old enough to be his mother and whom he may or may not resemble in some feature or quirk of personality or character. These very free will choices and actions indeed lead him to his fate as the killer of his father and his sovereign, Theban King Laius; and as the wedder and bedder of his own mother, Theban Queen Jocasta.

Answer 4

The struggle over whether to accept or sabotage an unenviable fate is an example of the conflict between fate and free will in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban monarchs Jocasta and Laius hear the prophecy that their son will grow up to kill his father. Killing a child is far less serious than killing a father and sovereign, both of which are offenses against gods and mortals. Laius and Jocasta therefore make the decision to sacrifice their child, save their marriage and subvert fate.

Answer 5

It is as a man with a free will that is manipulated to his own detriment by fate that Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.) portrays Oedipus in "Oedipus Rex."

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus freely makes choices that are not the best to pursue. Each choice moves him closer to the fulfillment of his fate as his father's killer and his mother's husband. Both Oedipus and the chorus observe that the gods never let go of mortals whom they curse until all happiness and hope are gone.

Answer 6

Free will controls Theban King Oedipus by the consequences of the increasingly restrictive choices that he makes.

Specifically, free will is the voluntary choosing of courses of action. Theban King Oedipus appears to exercise free will when he voluntarily decides to run away from Corinth. The problem lies in this course of action being the first in a series of bad, escapist choices by Oedipus.

For example, Oedipus could have chosen not to run away. Instead, he could have returned to Corinth. There, he might have confronted Corinthian monarchs Polybus and Merope. The royal couple had been evasive when Oedipus had brought to their attention rumors of his being adopted. Because he was getting no answers in Corinth, Oedipus went off to ask his questions of the Delphic Oracle.

In addition to unsettling rumors, Oedipus then had the disturbing Delphic prediction that he was fated to kill his father and marry his mother. Such a horrific prediction might have forced the Corinthian royal couple to admit to being foster and not biological parents to Oedipus. The Corinthian shepherd-turned-messenger who brought the infant Oedipus from Thebes to Corinth then could have been brought in to identify Oedipus' real birth parents. Oedipus therefore would have known not to have anything to do with Thebes or Thebans.

But the bad, escapist choice that Oedipus made was followed by a series of equally bad, escapist choices that increasingly narrowed the range of possible paths down which his fate would unfurl. That is indeed the disadvantage of free will. It will be only as good as the choices that are made, and the choices always have consequences.