Damn the Fates. Free will in Sophocles' Theban plays (Oedipus Rex, Antigone)

D.T. Suzuki, a renowned expert on Zen Buddhism, called attention to the topic of free will in one of his lectures by stating that it was the battle of 'God versus Man, Man versus God, God versus Nature, Nature versus God, Man versus Nature, Nature versus Man1.' These six battles constitute an ultimately greater battle: the battle of free will versus determinism. Free will is that ability for a human being to make …showed first 75 words of 1420 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1420 total…from prison. The situation at hand is this: if the escape is successful, a life of freedom awaits, but if it is a failure, additional punishment shall be added to the current one. The question is whether or not a life of freedom is worth the risk, and most men answer this as 'no.' Oedipus, unlike most people, answered 'yes', and because he his escape failed, he suffered much more greatly than most people.