Story's are told involving fate, but very few capture the true meaning of fate like Oedipus the King. To be successful, you have to understand how to use fate to your advantage. Fate is defined as "the immutable law of the universe; inevitable necessity; the force by which all existence is determined and conditioned." In Oedipus the King it is made quite clear by Sophocles that trying to defy your fate is pointless and only results in your fate coming to pass whether you like it or not.
             The first example of the pointlessness of trying to defy your fate is that of Laius. One day Laius, Oedipus' true father, was confronted by an oracle of Apollo. This oracle told him he would be murdered by his son. When Jocasta, his wife, gave birth to a son, Laius, believing he could defy the prediction of Apollo's oracle, ordered that his newborn son is put to death. He gave the child to Jocasta, and she gave the child to a servant in the castle, telling him to bind the baby and leave him on a far hill to die. The child was bound and taken by the servant, but the servant could not to leave the child to die. Now the servant very easy could have obeyed his orders but did not. The servant found a shepherd in a nearby field and gave him the child to care for and hoped that no one would find out what he had done. This could be explained merely as the servant having heart and not wishing to see the child die, but its true fates first step in controlling the course of one's life.
             Many years later, long after the events with the Laius' child had taken place, Laius set out on a journey. He came to fork in the road, and at this fork, he and his men ran into a stranger. Laius and his men became involved in an argument with this stranger, and the stranger became so angry he murdered Laius and all but one of his men. So, it would appear that Laius did defy the predictions of the oracle. He was not murdered by his son but by some strange man he ran into on ...