Oedipus Rex- Scene 4/ Ode 4

Summary: The shepherd then comes in. He is the man that the messenger remembers. The shepherd says that he does not remember the messenger. The messenger then refreshes his memory and says how they spent three years together. The shepherd denies giving the messenger a baby and does not want to talk about it. Oedipus then threatens the shepherd. The shepherd confesses to giving the baby away and not following orders. The shepherd then says that the baby was Laios' and Iokaste's. Oedipus then realizes that all of the prophecies are true and his whole life is damned. He killed his father and married his mother. He rushes into the palace. The chorus then says how Oedipus was so great, but he has now fallen. They question how this could have happened.

Response:Oedipus' whole life he was trying to trick or beat fate, but the whole time he was actually fulfilling it which is kind of sick, wrong, and sad. It is ironic that Oedipus was finally able to solve the greatest riddle of all, the riddle of his life. He was finally able to figure out who the murderer of Laios was, but in the process he caused his life to become ruined. Would Oedipus have been punished in his later life he had not known what he had done on earth? Would the prophecy have been fulfilled if Oedipus or Iokaste had never found out the truth? Did Oedipus and Iokaste have to know the truth in order to have the prophecy be fulfilled? It wouldn't have really mattered if Oedipus and Iokaste had never found out the truth. They would have continued living their lives in ignorant bliss unaware of the sins they were committing. It would have never mattered then if they had never found out. If they had never found out, they still would have fulfilled the prophecy, but it seems like it wouldn't have been fulfilled because they would have not known. It was probably part of fate that they discovered the truth otherwise they would have never realized what they had really done in their lives, so their sins would have meant nothing because they would have been unaware of them.