King Oedipus's fate is horrid to say the least, and the hotly debated topic of his guilt is one only known to modern audiences. However, during the time in which this was produced it was commonly believed that Oedipus was still held responsible for his actions even though he had little knowledge about what he was doing. This reinforced to those audiences the capricious nature of Fate and that we are all unable to escape it. Modern audiences have a harder time with this, though, seeing Oedipus as an unwilling pawn.
