The Importance Of Free Will In Sophocles '

“Why do bad things always happen to good people?” You’ve probably heard this saying several times, or you may be one to say it. The answer is actually quite clear in the eyes of Sophocles, who believes that one does not have free will, and every aspect of one’s life is already predetermined. Another extremely well-known saying is by Newton and states that, “every action has an equal and opposite reaction.” While this statement is definitely true in physics, it sparks controversy when it comes to our lives. According to Sophocles, this saying is anything but true in reality. Nevertheless, there are some with varying opinions about this theory; one Irish scholar named E. R. Dodds has a different view. While Dodds considers the theme that Oedipus
After hearing about the prophecy of her husband, Laius, Jocasta “was afraid — frightening prophecies” (Sophocles 231) and wants to do anything she can to prevent Laius’s death. While Jocasta attempts to use her free will (a right that Dodds’ argues every human has) to give Oedipus away, she realizes there is no such thing, and, because destiny is inescapable, it reunites them. This inevitable prophecy states that (as told by the drunk man at a banquet), “you are fated to couple with your mother, you will bring a breed of children into the light no man can bear to see” (Sophocles 205). Oedipus’s oracle predicts that he will one day marry his mother, and because this fate is beyond Oedipus’s control, nothing he can do will stop these predetermined aspects from becoming a reality. The shepherd informs Oedipus of this, while the king is trying to understand how he could have possibly killed Laius by saying, “All right! His son, they said was—his son! But the one inside, your wife, she’d tell it best” (Sophocles 231). The man notifies Oedipus that his wife, Jocasta, would tell the story of how Oedipus was given away best, as she was the one to do so. Oedipus is shocked; this is when he realizes that Jocasta is indeed his mother, and Laius is indeed his father. He exclaims, “O god—all come true, all burst to light! O light—now let me look my last on you! I stand revealed at last—cursed
An example, who was mentioned earlier, is Dodds, who argues that the theory that the theme of the book is about destiny is “anachronistic.” Dodds is convinced that “fifth-century Greeks did not think in these terms any more than Homer did: the debate about determinism is a creation of Hellenistic thought. Homeric heroes have their ‘predetermined portion of life’; they must die on their ‘appointed day’; but it never occurs to the poet or his audience that this prevents them from being free agents” (Dodds 22). Dodds believes that Greeks did not consider fate as important as we do now and that they do not think in the same way we do today. However, this arguement in invalid, as the Greeks valued free will and fate just as much as we do today. In fact, the Fates were three sister deities, and the incarnations of destiny and life. One sister allows a child to be born, another measures out how long their life will last, and decides how their life will play out, and the third decides when and how the human will die (The Fates). Considering how the Fates are constructed, Dodds’ argument is rendered