Question

What relationship does Sophocles establish between prophecy and Oedipus's actions ?

Answer 1

Sophocles establishes a relationship between prophecy and destiny and he elaborates upon this idea by making them distinct and yet, perfectly intertwined, to the point where the first one becomes the latter.

In Sophocles’ play, it is well known, Oedipus is vanished from his kingdom at birth in order to prevent the horrible prophecy from becoming true —marrying his mother and killing his father. Despite all attempts at securing this, the prophecy becomes Oedipus´ destiny as he, haphazardly, slays his father and then marries his mother.

Answer 2

Sophocles is not a character on this story but the author. The relationship that Sophocles establish between prophecy and Oedipus's actions is that he made Oedipus a king who went through a lot of irony,like he was the king who has everything who would likely to have everything well but he was totally the opposite of it.

Oedipus tried to run away from the prophecy--- to kill his father and disgrace his mother's bed. True to his prophecy, he tried to avoid this by running away from Corinth, yet he was able to fulfill it in a long run.