Aristotle's definition of the Greek hero seems to suggest that, unless the hero has free will, he is not a hero. Nonetheless, and although he has tragic flaws of rage and stubbornness, Oedipus in Sophocles' play Oedipus Rex seems doomed from the very beginning of both his life and the play. The Greek oracle, spokesperson for the God of light and truth, Apollo, pronounces judgment on Laios' family from the very beginning, and nothing Oedipus or his family says or does can change the course of the future. To establish this, I will consider the attempts of the family to thwart the will of the god chronologically.

First neither Laios nor Jocasta is successful in preventing Oedipus from growing to manhood. Told by the Delphic oracle that he would be killed by his son, Laios pins the infant's feet together and has Iokaste give him to a herdsman to expose on Kithairon. Instead, the man, with the most innocent of intentions, passes the baby on to a fellow shepherd who works for a king in another kingdom, that of Corinth. Who but the gods could have touched the shepherd's heart as well as that of the King and Queen of Corinth to adopt him?

Next, based on the report of the same oracle, Oedipus leaves Corinth, as a man, again with the best of intentions, and finds his way to Thebes just on time to meet his father at the crossroad. Admittedly Oedipus does an extremely bad act in killing the whole (save one) of Laios' party. But had he known that Laios was his father, surely he would not have committed the murders. Moreover, because Oedipus has been assured by Polybos and Merope that he is their child, he has no reason to even consider that his hasty act could help fulfill the prophecy.

After killing Laios, Oedipus meets the Sphinx, certainly a supernatural creature. Arguably his inspiration for answering her riddle is from the gods, those same gods who know the implications of his correct answer. Also, because of this supernatural creature, the people of Thebes cut short their investigation of Laios' murder. The coincidence of these events guarantees that Oedipus will be given a hero's welcome in Thebes.

Finally, and where the will of the gods seems most in evidence, the story relates the failure of Teiresias, the very mouthpiece of Apollo, to prevent either the murder or the incestuous marriage. If Teiresias represents the ways of god to humans, he has the power to correct the problem at any time. That he does not suggests that either he believes that the will of the gods cannot be thwarted or that what they will is for the best. In either case, his knowledge of all the details from who Oedipus really is to what he has done implicates him fully in the murder and the incest.

But Teiresias is the gods' mouthpiece and "the holy prophet/In whom Š truth was born" (I.82-3). His silence is the silence of the gods who know what will happen and who seem to will that it happen. The information Oedipus would need to avoid doing what he does is deliberately withheld from him, time and time again. It seems, indeed, as if the gods have doomed him from the start.