As an expected source of the truth and of the future, and as an unexpected source for the fulfillment of one's fate, the Delphic Oracle is important to Theban King Oedipus. That's why Oedipus goes to Delphi to check out a recent rumor. It's a case of an upsetting rumor that Oedipus isn't the biological son of the only people he believes to be his parents: King Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth.
But under questioning, the Oracle describes Oedipus' fate as the killer of his own father and the wedder and bedder of his own mother. The Horror of such an unexpected response causes all questions as to his true parents to disappear. That same horror causes Oedipus to run away from home and try to start life afresh far away from Corinth.
But in the process, everything that Oedipus does just draws him closer to his nightmarish fate. And so ultimately, the Delphic Oracle ends up as the source of Oedipus' free will choices and actions that hand him over to his miserable destiny.
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Oedipus learns from the oracle that he will marry his mother.
Creon; the Delphic oracle
father
That he will kill his father and marry his mother are the horrible things that the oracle claims that Oedipus will do in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).Specifically, it is the Delphic oracle that speaks to Oedipus of these horrible things. This oracle is located at Delphi and is considered the most famous and most respected oracle in ancient Greece. What the Delphic oracle says therefore tends to be taken seriously, and Oedipus does what any really frightened person does: He runs.
A way of ending the pestilence is what Oedipus hopes to gain by sending his wife's brother to pray to the Delphic oracle in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).Specifically, Oedipus knows of the pestilence that afflicts all Thebes. It does not affect the royal household. But Oedipus cares about his people. He therefore asks Creon, his brother-in-law and royal colleague, to seek the advice of the Pythia, the Delphic oracle.