Oedipus at Colonus:

“Who craves excess of days,

Scorning the common span

Of life, I judge that man

A giddy wight who walks in folly’s ways.

For the long years heap up a grievous load,

Scant pleasures, heavier pains,

Till not one joy remains

For him who lingers on life’s weary road

And come it slow or fast,

One doom of fate

Doth all await,

For dance and marriage bell,

The dirge and funeral knell.

Death the deliverer freeth all at last.”

” Ills on ills! no pause or rest!

Come they from our sightless guest?

Or haply now we see fulfilled

What fate long time hath willed?

For ne’er have I proved vain

Aught that the heavenly powers ordain.

Time with never sleeping eye

Watches what is writ on high,

Overthrowing now the great,

Raising now from low estate.”

“Man is born to fate a prey.”

Antigone:

“Past, present, and to be,

All bow to thy decree,

All that exceeds the mean by Fate

Is punished, Love or Hate.”

“Strange are the ways of Fate, her power

Nor wealth, nor arms withstand, nor tower;

Nor brass-prowed ships, that breast the sea

From Fate can flee.”

I’ve already posted this answer once this evening, so I hope it’s OK to do it again if it’s relevant to another question! Oedipus was warned by the oracle that he would kill his father and marry his mother. He tried to keep that prophecy from coming true by never going home again, only to flee to the city where his real parents were king and queen. Later Jocasta tells himthat she and her first husband were warned that the baby she was expecting would grow up to kill him. The pieces fit together, right? Oedipus is a helpless victim of fate who can’t avoid what was mapped out before he was born. But backtrack: he went to the oracle in the first place because he wasn’t sure who his parents were–he had been told that he was adopted, and when his supposed parents assured him that he wasn’t, it didn’t ring quite true. But when he’s told that he will kill his father and marry his mother, he tries to avoid doing so by avoiding the people he’s not even sure ARE his parents–and within the day he kills a man with grey hair. Then, proceding in the direction from which that man was coming, he comes to a city whose king has gone to the place Oedipus was coming from and hasn’t returned. When Oedipus saves the city from the Sphinx (the reason their king had gone to the oracle), the people make him king and he marries the previous king’s wife–an older woman. Are these sensible acts for any man who has been told that he will kill his father and marry his mother, and who isn’t sure who his parents ARE? Often in Greek tragedy family curses are shown to be due to characteristics in the family members themselves. So think again about that “road rage” incident. Laius and his retinue, going in one direction at a narrow intersection, encounter Oedipus coming the other way. Laius orders Oedipus out of his way and strikes at him with his whip, and Oedipus explodes and kills Laius and his followers. Does there seem to be a problem with anger management running in the family? In short, is Oedipus really a helpless victim of fate, or is he only a victim of his own heredity who at least in part brings his fate on himself?

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RE:
What are some good quotes on fate in Oedipus Trilogy?
I need a quote on the theme of "inevitability and uncertainty of fate" for each of the play: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone. I have already found the ones for Rex and Colonus, but I don't think they represent the theme well enough. Please note the scene where the quote…

Mine is Feral Appetites by Renee Fischer its a great book.its a must have!!

check it out if you havent read it

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0979415411?tag=arcman-20

yeet