Destiny is the notion that certain parts of our lives are predetermined and no matter how much we will it to be different, it will not change. Greek culture and literature puts a large deal of importance on the idea of destiny. Sophocles’ tragedies of Oedipus Rex and Antigone are perfect examples of characters that fight the uphill battle against their destinies. In Oedipus Rex, a shaman foresees that Oedipus will kill his father and have sex with his mother. Out of fear that this will come true, Oedipus’ parents exile him and due to this he runs into them later on in life as a stranger and fulfills the prophecy. Oedipus’ parents attempted to change their fate and the fate of their son but in doing so put in motion events that led to their destiny unfolding.

In Antigone, two brothers named Eteocles and Polyneices fight for the throne and both die in the process. Creon, ruler of Thebes, orders Eteocles to be buried and Polyneices to be left to rot. Polyneices’ sister, Antigone, defies Creon’s orders and buries Polyneices. Creon buries Anigone alive in a cave but his son Haemon begs him not to. The prophet Tiresias comes and says that if Creon doesn’t release Antigone, he will lose a son. While Creon decides what he should do he finds out that Antigone, Haemon, and his wife Eurydice have killed themselves.

The idea of fate in a tragedy is to tell the reader what horrible thing is going to happen at the end of the story. The importance of this is to see how the characters use this knowledge and in most cases the characters misuse it or panic. Certain things are written and certain things can be changed by will but the tragedy of man is that he does not want to accept that certain things are out of his control.