Fate is a major theme in Sophocles plays. It is the actions of each character that bring about their inevitable fate. Oedipus Rex gives the perfect example that you cannot avoid or hide from the life that is destined for you. Oedipus was predicted to marry his mother and kill his father. His continuous effort to avoid his fate by leaving his parents at birth only aids the ending result.

The inevitability of fate is prevalent throughout Antigone. Antigone is fated to die from the beginning of the play. The proper burial of her brother, Polynices, brings forth her death and she does not avoid it. Creons incentive to decide the fate of Polynices body and his own stubbornness brings about his own tragic fate. Tiresias serves as a foreshadowing of the predestined fate of Creon. Tiresias tells Creon that Thebes will be cursed by the gods because Creon didn’t allow a human body the proper burial. His refusal to obey the prophet and gods and his attempt to avoid it is what ultimately leads him to suffer the death of his son Haemon and his queen Eurydice.