Oedipus, the main character in Sophocles' play "Oedipus the King," is a very popular man. He has everything a man at that time could possibly want; He is the king of Thebes, he has a wonderful wife and children, and also has great fame throughout the land. But one day, all of this is taken from him. Since the gods gave Oedipus the prophecy, he knew what he needed to do to make it untrue. This play is centered on the idea of free will, it was Oedipus' own choices that account him responsible for his downfall; He chose to leave Cornith, to kill his father, and to not accept help from Teresias. .
Teirasias tries to warn Oedipus and makes and effort to convince him to not look further for the truth, because he won't like it. Due to Oedipus' ego which is built up by the pedestal that the people of Thebes have put him on, he ignores Teiresias and continues to look for more answers. Oedipus refers to Teiresias as a "sightless, witless, senseless, mad old man!" (Oedipus, Sc I, 160) He is so full of himself that he thinks Teiresias is stupid and has no idea what he is talking about since Oedipus claims himself to be smarter and better than anyone else since he is the King of Thebes. Again, due to Oedipus' own decision to not listen to the guidance given to him from Teiresias, he is acting upon his foolishness and unknowingly, ruining his future.
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Oedipus goes to the Shrine at Delphi and was shocked and decided to run away from the prophecy the gods gave him. "I heard all this and fled. And from that day Corinth to me was only in the stars" (Sophocles, Sc II, 270). The gods told Oedipus that he would breed with his own mother and kill his father. Since these were very evil acts he thought the farther away from Corinth he went, he would arrive "To a land where I should never see the evil sung by the oracle" (Sophocles, Sc II, 275). It was Oedipus' free will to decide to leave Corinth, but due to his ignorance he believed that this would then stop his oracle from being true.
