Oedipus Rex
... shepherd hands the infant prince to a servant of Polybus, and Oedipus grows up believing that he is the son of Polybus, king of Corinth. Later at a feast in the kingdom, the same servant of Polybus who is drunk tells him that he is a “bastard child” and not the son of Polybus. Upset by this thought, Oedipus heads to the Oracle of Delphi to seek the truth. Yet all Oedipus finds out is that he will kill his father and marry his mother. And because Oedipus believes that the King and Queen of Corinth are his biological parents, he travels to a far away land in order to escape the prophecy. Again, fate brings him to meet five strangers, one of them being his true father. Ironically, after an argument Oedipus kills four of the men including his father Laius, yet one other shepherd escapes. Later in his journey fate, once more, brings him to Thebes, where he answers the riddle that hundreds of men have failed to answer. How would one explain why, in all lands of the world, did Oedipus happen to go to Thebes, and why out of the previous passerby’s was Oedipus the only one to answer the riddle correctly? Again and again the audience sees that fate ...