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accepting it; the gods themselves commined incest and broke: taboos . Certainly in
terms of the power and potency of the Delphic oracle as portrayed by Sophocles. it is
clear that what the oracle says shall be so. Similarl y, Abimbola asserts thar in
"traditional Yoruba society , the life of every man, from birth until death. is dominated
and regulat ed by Ifa" (66) . Yet a probl em remains for most; if the gods do mina te
human life . how do humans take responsibility for their actions? How can they evade
the will and decree of the gods? Did the gods predestinate or simply predict Oedipus'
and Odewalc's actions?
The infallJ"bility of the divine orac le is juxtaposed against human skepticism in
both plays by Sophocles and Rotimi . Durin g the fifth century there was a move awa y
fro m the Ath enian gods and oracles to man's technologi cal wisdo m and sophism as
satirized in Aristophanes ' Clouds. Th ucid ydes gives an acco unt of the plague which
broke out during the Pe1oppon esian War and suggests that "the temples in which they
pitched their tents were fuU of corpses which had died on the spot. As it prev ailed
over them people turned to negligence of both holy and sacred things alike" (ll .S2.3­
5). Similarly, with the exposure to western civilization, money and power, many
Africans turned away from the tribal gods to embrace the "gods " of the foreigners;
and during the civil war, there wasno fear of god in the midst of moral and political
corruption.
Sop hocles dramatizes such moral docay when just after hearing that Po lybus is
dead , Jocasa says mockingly, ·0 oracles of the gods where are you' · (946-947) and
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