The Role Of Fate In Ancient Greece

The idea of fate has been part of human philosophy since the beginning of time. One such time was the golden age of Greece. After the Persian War Athens became a leading power in Greece. By Forming the Delian league Athens grew its polis into an empire that reached across Greece. After forming the League Athens began stealing money from the treasury and eventually just moved it, from home on Delos, to the Acropolis of Athens. As Athens control spread across Greece so did its love in the arts. The Arts exploded in popularity and many of these works are still great today. Works like The Iliad and Oedipus Tyrannos dealt with the idea of the inescapabilty of Fate and in trying to avoid these fates we instead seal it. These works give us insight …show more content…
When Oedipus was born a prophecy was told that he would kill his father then bed his mother. Hearing this Laius and Jocasta, his mom and dad, pin and tie his ankles together and leave him on a hill outside of town. Because they failed to kill him, he was adopted by the king of Corinth and raised there until one fateful day he killed his father in a three road crossroads while in a dispute. Then when he leaves Corinth he travels to Thebes and is met by a Sphinx, whom he defeats and is crowned king of Thebes. After being crowned a plague hits Thebes and the answer is to exile the one who beds with their mother. As Oedipus tries to track down who is responsible he learns that there was a child fated to do this and begins to suspect himself. As he drew closer to the solution more and more points to him being the culprit. The last piece falls in place when he finds the shepherd who saved him and is told how he was saved. He runs home to find Jocasta hanging in his room and upon this sight he claws his eyes out. His fate was sealed the second he was saved by the shepherd which in turn led to his fate coming to pass. The theme of fate in this tragedy showed that the greatest men take the greatest falls all because of …show more content…
After the war Athens probably convinced others into the Delian League by telling them it was fate for the league to become the greatest power in Greece. Fate might have been a way coax the high and mighty into submission by scaring them. With plays like Oedipus Tyrannos that showed that even kings could fall to rock bottom, the rich tried to be good so that these fates may not be placed upon them. Works like The Iliad showed that fate controlled everything to the point even gods couldn’t avoid it. This could be used to prove how Athens was fated to become an empire and rise to