Fate is influenced by one's own actions but ultimately is dictated by events beyond anybody's control. Sophocles' Theban play Oedipus the King; set in the 5th century BCE Ancient Greece displays to us the power of fate and situations in life that cannot be controlled. The gods preordained Oedipus' two past crimes; they decide the outcome of his quest for truth, which are revealed to him, but he decides the pathway he takes to arrive there and his reaction to the inevitable events that he exposes. This twofold fate doomed by the gods and influenced by Oedipus is what make him a "tragic figure"

Although he believes in the gods and, in the end, accepts the horrific events surrounding his life, Oedipus is the only character in the play that does not have the insight into the terrible events that have happened in his past. His awareness of...