Medea, Oedipus, and the Gods

“Medea, Oedipus and the Gods”
All Greek tragedies no matter how dissimilar share underlying commonality. According to Aristotle, the first true theater critic, all tragedies are composed of several common features. “Medea” and “Oedipus the King” are no different. They both contain strong plot, thought, character, language, melody and spectacle. They also both have their own unique conflict, event and themes. One reoccurring theme through almost all Greek tragedies is the role of the gods and fate, both of which play an integral part in “Medea” and “Oedipus.” But, the authors of each play seem to have extremely different views on the role of fate, and the amount of interaction and interference the gods have in the lives of mortals. These views give us an insight into the beliefs of the culture they came from.
Throughout both Medea and Oedipus, the characters are faced with struggle and hardship. From Oedipus being destined to kill his father and marry his mother to Medea killing her brother and then being left by Jason, both characters seem to have been destined by the gods for a cruel end. Oedipus tries and fails to tempt fate and ovoid his destiny due to the active role the gods play in his life, whereas Medea refuses to accept her fate and creates her own destiny with the blessing of less interactive gods.
Sophocles’ tragedy “Oedipus the King” begins with Oedipus attempting the save his city’s citizens from the struggles they currently are enduring. He soon learns that to appease the gods he must prosecute the man who murdered the king. Oedipus begins his pursuit of the old king’s killer, unaware that he himself murdered the king, his father, and married the queen, his mother. Fate continues to haunt Oedipus as he unknowingly fulfills everything the oracle had spoken and he had dedicated his life to avoid. No matter how hard he tries, his fate is predetermined and cannot be avoided, the gods have determined Oedipus’ destiny and nothing he can do will change it. Through-out the play numerous attempts at changing fate and avoiding destiny are made by several characters, not only Oedipus. But, these attempts change nothing, showing Sophocles belief that an individual’s fate is determined by the gods.
As a young boy Oedipus learned of his horrible future, and decided he would do anything within his power to avoid it. Oedipus believes if he tries hard enough he will be able to change the will of the gods and avoid becoming the man they have pre-destined him to be. Throughout the play he continually struggles against the gods becoming more and more frustrated as his attempts continually fail. The futility of his struggle is too much to bear, and culminates in the climax, as he accepts his fate and gouges out his own eyes, driven mad by the realization that he has become everything he has tried his whole life to avoid.
Oedipus though is not the only character who tries and fails at tempting fate. Jocasta and King Laius both meet their demise attempting to change their prospective destiny. They too learn of their futures from an oracle and take steps to avoid it, having Oedipus left in the wilderness for dead. But, by trying to avoid their fate they only change the path on which they will meet it. The Shepard, who was ordered to leave Oedipus to die, brings him to king Polybus, but this will change nothing, the oracle will still come true. The Shepard believes he is changing Oedipus’ fate but in reality is just changing the method in which it comes true. Oedipus still meets and kills the King, his father, on the cross roads. By trying to avoid his fate and run from the will of the gods he actually plays right into their hands doing exactly what was foreordained many years ago.
The characters in Oedipus continually try to avoid the plans laid out by the gods and tempt fate to no avail. Sophocles believes the will of the gods is unavoidable, that fate cannot be tempted and that free will has its limits. In this tragedy fate has a sense of irony, the harder the characters try to avoid their fate the more they play into the will of the gods. Fate is the constant determining factor leading to their tragic end. The gods determine the fate of the characters, which have no hope to change their own fortune
Euripides “Medea” has a much different outlook on fate and the gods. Medea has and uses the power to create her own destiny, the gods do not have as much power and events can happen against their will. Medea, after helping Jason and the Argonauts, killing her own brother, chopping him up into little pieces, and moving to an entirely different country away from her entire family is left by Jason for his new wife. Jason tries to explain his actions, only to further prove to Medea that her rage is justified, and she begins to plot to destroy Jason and all that he loves. The gods do not cause Medea’s’ actions, nor do they oppose them, but in actuality help her in the tragedies final scene.
Medea’s vengeance is swift and terrible. She begins by taking away what Jason truly loves; she murders the princess, and in the process ends up killing the King himself. Next, to punish Jason even farther, she kills her own children; she will end his line, take away his family, and give no one else the satisfaction of killing them. Jason pleads to the gods for justice only to have Medea escape on a flying flaming chariot with their help.
Oedipus and Medea drastically differ in their view and acceptance of fate. Oedipus tries his hardest to avoid the will of the gods, and spends his whole life trying to tempt fate. Medea on the other hand pays little attention to the gods; she forms her own fate without giving the gods or their will a second thought. Whether or not they looked on her actions favorably does not matter to her, she would not have changed a single thing. Neither Jason nor Medea allow the gods to write the story of their lives. Jason makes his decisions without a care for anyone other than himself driving Medea to do the same, culminating in her final act of vengeance taking all that Jason loves, righting the wrongs that he had perpetrated. In “Medea”, unlike in “Oedipus the King’, the gods and fate play a very small role in the play. At the end of the tragedy the only time they interfere with mortals is in providing Medea with a flaming chariot to escape Jason, showing her favor in the end, either because she has taken steps for justice or more likely because her grandfather is the god Helios. No matter the reason for Medea being provided the chariot, the gods show very little interest in the lives of the mortals, and humans have much more ability to determine their own fates.
Through the role and actions of the gods in Medea Euripides view on the gods can be inferred. Euripides seems to believe that the gods do not take an interest in the everyday life of mortals. Euripides unlike Sophocles has a revolutionary view on the gods. In this play there is little to no relation between the interest or interference of the gods and the actions of humans, no matter how moral or immoral they may be. This directly conflicts with the popular beliefs of his day and age. Due to the Euripides unpopular beliefs his popularity as a writer during his life was nowhere near that of Sophocles. Sophocles was an extremely famous and successful poet. Aristotle loved Sophocles work, and was not very fond of the works of Euripides. Euripides works did not gain in popularity and acceptance to the same level as those of Sophocles until after his death. Like most revolutionary ideas, those of Euripides took time to gain acceptance into popular culture.
Sophocles and Euripides ideas and views on the gods give us an insight into the beliefs of the people in that time period. Sophocles popularity shows that the popular opinion of the people viewing the plays was more coherent with his ideas. Greeks of that day and age would identify more with the ideals expressed in “Oedipus the King.” More people would have believed that the gods played an active role in our everyday lives, that we are predestined to be the person we are and that nothing we can do will change that. The beliefs in “Medea” were controversial and not commonly accepted by those who watched the play. But, as time went on the gradual acceptance of the ideals found in “Medea” show a change in the fundamental beliefs of the people of that time period. People slowly began to believe that like Medea they are in control of their destiny. As these beliefs advanced the gods in no way were completely forgotten, but society as a whole began to change their views. Sophocles and Euripides differing views and change of acceptance were indicative of the changing beliefs of the society those plays were intended for.