figure, then we are expecting Oedipus to be saved by the very forces which had victimized him in the first place. In any case, Oedipus is created by the gods as an example of human tragedy, and they are not about to let him out of that fate.
Oedipus is on one hand a victim of forces much more powerful then he, and far beyond his comprehension. Oedipus is at the fate of the gods, of destiny, of the prophecies of the oracles.
Oedipus, to have avoided his tragic fate, would have had to suddenly be a person other than he was. He knows no other life than the aggressive life of leader of his people. On the other hand, this aggressiveness played a part in the murder of his father, although, of course, he did not know the man he killed was indeed his father. Oedipus thought the man was merely a stranger with whom he had had a dispute at a crossroads, a dispute which led to homicide.
So we have a man who is doomed to a tragic fate by gods who seem to have set up a series of traps which ensure such a
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