Gods will and divine justice in Oedipus the King and Canto III of the inferno?

Answer 1

Isn't Dante's inferno a catholic book? Gods is incorrect. I don't really get your question to be honest.

Answer 2

This sounds suspiciously like a class assignment to me! However, the fact that one work is pre-Christian and the other is Christian doesn't prevent them from having their own concepts of divine justice--or preclude comparing those concepts. It will help to conside the question of free will, too. Although Oedipus seems to be fulfilling a prophecy part of which was made before he was born, what choices or decisions does he make that lead to his fulfilling it? Then in Canto III of the Inferno, the people in the Vestibule of Hell are there because they refused to do what? And what does that fact say about the people who are actually inside Hell? Also, consider the appropriateness of the punishments all through the Inferno and in Oedipus Rex.

Two other works, between the first two in time, that deal with the fate-vs.-free will question in a way that might add dimension to what you're undertaking are the last section of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy (A. D. c420) and Roswitha's Callimachus (late 10th century A. D.). In the latter, consider why John has been sent to revive only Drusiana and Callimachus and what happens when they prevail on him to revive Fortunatus, too.