Oedipus Rex, destiny and the modern world In the two thousand years since the writing of “Oedipus Rex”, it has been analyzed and dissected countless times and in every possible way. Usually the analysis was carried out in the context of the play itself or in the context of other Greek tragedies. Perhaps it would be more relevant and interesting to evaluate the work in the context of the modern world. In his work Sophocles raises many questions that are not easy to answer. Does man have free will? What responsibility does a man have for his actions? Should inferior human intellect and poor human reasoning be placed above obedience to one's God or gods? Neither Sophocles nor the Greeks originated these questions. Thousands of years before the time of the Greeks, man feared that his life, and therefore his destiny, was determined by very powerful gods. So much time and energy was spent praying and asking the gods to use divine intervention to provide hunting, weather, food, and other forms of good luck. Thousands of years of superstition and spiritual worship evolved into the religion of the Greeks, which was based on mythology and the belief that the Olympian gods controlled the lives of men. Sophocles highlights the beliefs of the Greeks in several scenes in which the gods are consulted through oracles. In one scene, Iokaste tells Oedipus that an oracle had told Laius that his sentence would be death at the hands of his son. His son born of his flesh and mine (II. 214-220). Iokaste and Laius had asked an oracle about the future of their child (Oedipus) to have a better understanding of the child's fate. After receiving this information and realizing the tragic fate of... half of the paper... learn there, if you can, what act or commitment of mine will save the city. (II. 72-77)As the Greeks did two thousand years ago, the Indians of Guatemala do today. Oracles are consulted on every important event in their lives. Not only do they go towards their future, but they also make many futile attempts to change their fate by offering food, money, alcohol, or cigars to Maximon, Culiatlec, Kielem, or whichever god they believe has the strongest powers. Without access to resources or education, the Mayan Indian is destined to work his small plot of land and barely survive on a diet of beans and tortillas. He will dye himself young with hard work just like his father, his grandfather and every other ancestor since the beginning of time. If he tries to change his destiny by taking up arms against his oppressor, he will die even younger. Likewise