In Oedipus, list and explain five quotes that refers to the idea of fate.

. Before thou didst assume
the helm of State,
The sovereign of this land was Laius.

. I heard
as much, but never saw the man.

CREON. He fell; and now the god's command is
plain:
Punish his takers-off, whoe'er they be.

OEDIPUS. Where are
they? Where in the wide world to find
The far, faint traces of a bygone
crime?

CREON. In this land, said the god; "who seeks shall
find;
Who sits with folded hands or sleeps is blind."

OEDIPUS.
Was he within his palace, or afield,
Or traveling, when Laius met his fate?

The dramaticof Oedipus's last line above is that the audience knows
from the ancient myths and legends that Oedipus killed Laius, but at this early point in the
play Oedipus is wholly ignorant of that fact. Oedipus doesn't realize that his fate and Laius's
fate are the same, and inextricably linked with one another.

Likewise, the
fate of Oedipus andare the same, at least at the moments that they intersect, when Oedipus kills
Laius, and when Oedipus and Jocasta are married.

An interesting aspect of
fate in is that all prophecies have been fulfilled, and Oedipus's fate has
already been sealed before the events of the play begin.

Free will never
truly enters into Oedipus's life. Oedipus has already killed his father and married his mother.
His fate can't be changed.

JOCASTA. ...An
oracle
Once came to Laius (I will not say
'Twas from the Delphic god himself,
but from
His ministers) declaring he was doomed
To perish by the hand of his
own son,
A child that should be born to him by me.

The irony continues, in that Oedipus starts to realize that he might have had something
to do with Laius's death, but Jocasta is unaware of the prophecy that Oedipus will marry his
mother.

Oedipus tells Jocasta about the people he believes are his parents,
King Polybus and Queen Merope, and, although Jocasta is aware of the prophecy that her son will
kill his father, Laius, this is the first time that Jocasta hears the prophecy about Oedipus
marrying his mother.

OEDIPUS. ... So privily without their
leave I went
To Delphi, and Apollo sent me back
Baulked of the knowledge that
I came to seek.
But other grievous things he prophesied,
Woes, lamentations,
mourning, portents dire;
To wit I should defile my mother's bed
And raise up
seed too loathsome to behold,
And slay the father from whose loins I sprang.

Aarrives from Corinth with news that King Polybus is dead. Oedipus
is saddened by the news, but Oedipus and Jocasta are also delighted at the implications of the
Messenger's report of Polybus's death.

Oedipus believes that he escaped his
fate, the prophecy he would kill his father, and Jocasta believes that Oedipus cannot be her
son, or the man who killed Laius.

Oedipus expresses some concern, however,
that he might nevertheless fulfill the part of the prophecy by marrying his mother, but Jocasta
dissuades him from that kind of thinking.

OEDIPUS. Must I
not fear my mother's marriage bed.

JOCASTA. Why should a mortal man, the
sport of chance,
With no assured foreknowledge, be afraid?

In a sense, Jocasta tries to relieve Oedipus of his fears by
implying that he's done nothing that was foretold in the prophecies, nothing was told to him
about his true fate, and he can't be responsible for another man's fate.

Oedipus also confides his fear of marrying his mother to the Messenger, who assures
Oedipus that this isn't possible because Merope wasn't his true mother. The Messenger explains
that Oedipus was adopted by Polybus and Merope, so there's no possibility that Oedipus can
fulfill that part of the prophecy.

Thelater confirms the Messenger's story,
and tells Oedipus that he was the son of Laius and Jocasta. The Herdsman says that Laius ordered
him to take his baby boy into the mountains to be left to die so that the child might not
fulfill a prophecy that he would kill his own father.

. O
heavy hand of fate!
Who now more desolate,
Whose tale more sad than thine,
whose lot more dire?
O Oedipus, discrowned head,
Thy cradle was thy marriage
bed;
One harborage sufficed for son and sire.

Everyone realizes that the prophecy of Oedipus's fate has been
fulfilled. What remains is for Oedipus and Jocasta to determine their own fate from this time
forward.

Jocasta is unable to live with the knowledge that her son killed his
father, or with the shame of marrying her own son, and she commits suicide. Oedipus blames
himself for everything that has happened. He blinds himself, and, in time, he exiles himself
from Thebes.

OEDIPUS. This much I know full surely, nor
disease
Shall end my days, nor any common chance;
For I had ne'er been
snatched from death, unless
I was predestined to some awful doom.
So be it. I
reck not how Fate deals with me...

The supreme irony is that none of what happened to Oedipus, Laius, and Jocasta that in
any way fulfilled the prophecies was Oedipus's fault. Oedipus was wholly a victim of fate in
every aspect of his life. There is nothing that Oedipus or anybody else could have done to avoid
his fate.

It wasn't Oedipus who tried to defy the prophecy that he would kill
his father and marry his mother. Oedipus's own father and mother set in motion all of the events
and circumstances that conspired against him, until the entirety of his story was revealed by
Oedipus's own efforts.

The only thing that Oedipus did was discover the
truth.

At the end of the play, Creon provides the lesson of the play, that
applies equally to Oedipus and to everyone else.

CREON.
Crave not mastery in all,
For the mastery that raised thee was thy bane and wrought thy
fall.