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Philosophical Issues Raised in Oedipus Rex

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In the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (rpt. In James P. Place, Literature: A Reader for Freshman Composition II, 1st ed. [Boston: Pearson, 2011] 122-168) many philosophical questions are raised by Iolaste’s judgement on the oracles. The chorus responds to these judgments at first as the gods are all knowing and anything said otherwise is blasfomous. Then they seem to go into a rant about how if the gods are not right in their prophecy then everything they say is not law. In the end of the play it is revealed that you cannot avoid the word of the gods.
Iokaste raises many philosophical questions about the oracles judgement. You can see this when she says, “Thus Apollo never caused that child to kill his father, and it was not Laios’ fate to die at the hands of his son, as he had feared. This is what prophets and prophecies are worth! Have no dread of them.” (143)
The chorus responds two different ways to Iokaste. The first way is that they think that the gods are all knowing. You can see this when they say, “And any mortal who dares hold no immortal power in awe will be caught up in a net of pain.”(148) Then the chorus flips the coin by saying if the gods end up being wrong then there is no fate and man determines his own destiny. You can see this when they say, “Words in the wind, and the Delphic vision blind! Their hearts no longer know Apollo, and reverence for the gods has died away.”
In the end of the play it is shown that man cannot avoid his destiny. You can see this in the conclusion of the play when Oedipus finally realizes his fate. He was the killer of his father and the person who laid in the same bed as his mother. Oedipus utters, “My voice is hurled far on a dark wind. What has god done to me?”(161)
All in all many philosophical questions were raised by Iokaste. This play ends up making the point that the gods know our fate and that man is

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