Oedipus: oracles and uncontrollable destinyKing Laios, ruler of Thebes, has a son with his wife Queen Iocoste. His name is Oedipus. The soothsayer Teiresias, faithful servant of the king and queen, tells them disturbing news. Teiresias tells King Laios and Queen Iocoste that their son, Oedipus, will kill his father and marry his mother. The king and queen decide to take the little boy to a mountain far from the city. King Laios gives the baby to a servant and asks him to bind the baby's ankles and leave him to perish on the mountainside. The servant follows his instructions but instead of leaving the boy on the mountainside, he entrusts him to a shepherd and makes him promise to take him to a distant place. This is how King Laios and Queen Iocaste try to avoid their fate. Threatened by the existence of their son, they try to have him killed to end their problem. However, this plan, almost foolproof, does not work. The shepherd takes the little boy back to his town and gives him to King Polybius because the king and queen could not have children. Oedipus grows up as the son of Polybius and Merope. When Oedipus was a young man, he was told that he was not his father's son. He tires of dismissing this horrible accusation as that of a drunken man, but it has always bothered him. One day, Oedipus decides to go see the Oracle to see what he knows about Oedipus' birth. The oracle tells Oedipus that his destiny is the death of his father by his own hands and that he will marry his mother. It does not answer the initial question posed by Oedipus as to who his real parents are. Hearing this, Oedipus decides to leave the city and never return as long as his parents (Polybius, Merope) are still alive. Oedipus flees his destiny by leaving the city and moving away from it. During his journey, he encounters a chariot pulled by horses and they force him off the road. As the driver of the chariot passed near Oedipus, he hit him, the man backed away. Oedipus hits him with a blow that knocks him out of the chariot, and the man falls dead to the ground...