Essay on Was Oedipus a Good King

An often asked question would be are people truly responsible for their actions? This question has puzzled humanity throughout history. Over the centuries, people have pondered the influence of divine or diabolical power, environment, genetics, and even entertainment, as determining how free any individual is in making moral choices. Greek mythology is focused on various “Gods” and how they interfere with humans. In ancient Greece, they worshiped the deity Zeus and in the eyes of the people the “Gods” control everything so they feel they must obey.

This paper will draw out points from Greek culture and African American culture to see how they differ or are similar. In the ancient Greek culture, they believed that fate was three mythical sisters, the supposed daughters of Zeus who are Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos known as the Fates collectively known as the Moirai. Some say that the Fates are the daughters of Zeus and Themis, and others say they are the daughters of Erebus and Nyx. The Roman name for 'the Fates' is Parcae; Clotho's Roman name is Nona, Lachesis is Decima, and Atropos is Morta. Atropos was the Fate who would cut the thread of life, Clotho was the Fate who would spin the thread of life, and Lachesis was the Fate who would assign to each man his destiny. The Fates are old and predate the gods, at birth, they appear spinning, measuring, and cutting the thread of a life. A man destined to become a great warrior one day could still choose what he wanted to do on any given day. The gods could simply intervene with decisions that could be helpful or harmful. In a sense, they controlled the metaphorical life of every mortal born. Thus, fate determines oneself and one's family, the two things that contribute most to one's societal status.

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In the lecture, we are learning about the story of Oedipus and we see the first account of how the Fates used their powers over the Greek people. In the play, King Oedipus is fated to sleep with his mother and is also doomed to kill his father. While Laiud, Oedipus's father attempted to prevent this tragedy from occurring. He realizes, however, that he nor any other human has control over the word of the Fates. Because of this unfortunate circumstance in which Oedipus is put, he reflects on the reasoning for why the Fates look ugly/witch-like. He could not accept the truth of his fate and accuses Tiresias of lying to him so Oedipus’s brother-in-law, Creon, could take over the kingdom. Oedipus is extremely flabbergasted by this news because he did not know about killing his father or marrying his mother, but what he learns later is that who he thought were his parents were not his real parents(Adopted). When he finally realizes that he did marry his mother and kill his father, he accepts it and punishes himself to uphold his promise to his people. By this point, there is no way Oedipus can escape his fate.

Tiresias says to Oedipus, “No man in the world can make the gods do more than the gods will” This suggests that no Greek god would stop or change his fate unless that god/deity felt like doing so, we see here the Gods have much power over the humans who believe in them. Since ancient Greek drama portrays the Moirai as hideous and scary, the Moirai's mythological role exemplifies the importance of fate to ancient Greek culture because the moirai personified the destiny of man and thus provided answers to the archaic questions of life, death, and free will. Since he did kill his father, the previous king, Oedipus has to be shunned by all of Thebes. Because there is no way of changing his fate, he accepts his responsibilities by giving himself the punishment he assigned to the murderer of Laius. Although Oedipus’s fate is already determined, he is not just a mere puppet of the gods, meaning he can control his own life.

Before full knowledge of his unintentional incest, he tries to flee town to avoid marrying his mother. This infers that the Greek mythological gods would play games with the humans and toy with them, which I find unfair, how did Zeus not correct this? It seems as though they abuse whatever power they have and unlike the Greek deities, the true and only Elohim does not operate in this manner. The so-called African American culture has a much more extensive meaning when regarding the topic of faith, and through this, we could determine our fate and our destiny in this world. Black people knew that through the belief in “Jesus Christ” or as my culture calls him Yahawashi our Messiah, working for the white man forever never going to be our fate but the bible does say we will go into slavery from a people we do not know and do not speak their language in Deuteronomy 28. I am an Israelite and I only believe in one Elohim meaning I am monotheistic.

Monotheism is the definition of the belief in only one god that created the world, who is all mighty and powerful and intervenes in the world. In my culture, we still believe in fate just not as multiple “goddesses” or “gods”. I believe in Yahawah and I do believe in this religion he does determine our fates, the bible tells us that he knows us before we are born, and he knows our whole lives. I would not say that I think he uses a piece of thread to control our lives, but I do believe he can decide whether to allow us to live or whether someone is ready to return to him. I believe The Most High has a plan for us and if we followed that we would be much happier and at peace. I think we get distracted from that plan but if we are sensible and admit the problems we are having are our own choices, free will allows us to do both good and evil but we can pray to our heavenly father for forgiveness and change our ways; we can stop and find our path again. Looking on today the many accomplishments that the African American culture has accomplished are amazing; through faith, black people fought for their freedom, the right to go to the same school as white people, to vote, to own their businesses, to start the Black Lives Matter movement, NAACP, to be scientists, doctors, lawyers, and even the president of the United States. Yahawah knew that it was in our blood to prosper and push through our hardships and become a group of people that lives on to tell the story of our ancestors and how we became one of the strongest and most distinct groups of beings that ever lived because we are his chosen people. Looking today the many accomplishments that the African American culture has completed are outstanding. Through faith, black people fought for their freedom, the right to go to the same school as white people, to vote, to own their businesses, to start the Black Lives Matter movement, to be scientists, doctors, lawyers, and even the president of the United States. God knew that it was in our destiny to prosper and push through our hardships and become a group of people that lives on to tell the story of our ancestors and how we became one of the strongest and most distinct groups of beings that ever lived. One example is when Jesus Christ is on the cross and a man who has sinned is right next to him being reprimanded for his sins.

The man asked Jesus Christ for forgiveness and he professed his belief and faith in Him and just like that he was granted everlasting life in paradise (Heaven). Just like that, the man’s fate had turned for the better. God already knew that this man would profess his fate, even if he did live a criminal life of lies and theft, it was at that moment that his belief in Jesus Christ led him to his fate. Imago Dei means that the Image of God is a concept and theological doctrine in Judaism, Christianity, and Sufism of Islam, which asserts that black people are created in the image and likeness of The Most High. Human beings were created to be just like the Most High himself; we all strive to have good intentions and to stay on our fate pathways, but we are sinners and The Most High knows this about us because he knew us before we were even born. He knows all, sees all, and is all; The Most High has purposefully put us through trials and tribulations just, so we can learn from them. When the same temptation appears in your life pathway again, you are to try your best to avoid your previous demeaning behavior and learn from your mistakes. Fate and Faith in Jesus /Christ and God go hand in hand in my book. It is not until people profess their belief in Jesus Christ that God will lay out a fateful pathway for you. Once you have professed your belief, it is up to you to decide whether you will follow his path or stray from it. Both Greeks and African Americans believe in the idea of fate but the