In Oedipus Rex, how is the concept expressed in the words of the chorus--"All seeing time discovered you unwillingly"--central to the play?

Playing an
integral part in the play, theof , the men of Thebes, are orginally
supportive, then critical, and finally, sympathethic to . In the line cited above, themakes the
critical observation that no one can escape fate, for in time Fate will find him because free
will has its limitations of time and character. Thus, this line is central to the themes of
Oedipus Rex.

• Fate is
  innate

While it is his pride and intelligence that
assists Oedipus in solving the riddle of the sphinx, ironically, this pride and quick temper,
his fatal flaws, are also agents of his undoing as his refusal to learn of his past allows his
destruction since there is enough time for all those with this knowledge to appear and reveal
the truth. Despite the warnings ofthat he

...will never
tell you what I know.
Now it is my misery, then, it would be yours. (316-317)

Oedipus persists until with time, his past is revealed by
messengers and the shepherd.

Certainly, as the secondsays in the
EXODOS,

The greatest griefs are those we cause
ourselves.(1262)

• Human free will
  has its limits

Despite the efforts of the parents
of Oedpius,and Laius, to prevent their son from fulfilling the prophecy about him, by their
binding and leaving him out for a certain death, Oedipus is rescued by a shepherd. Later,
Oedipus inadvertently encounters his real father and kills him without realizing the magnitude
of what he has done. So, while he has been free to kill, Oedipus unconsciously seals his fate as
he is made king of Thebes and marries his mother after Laius's death and his solving of the
riddle of the sphinx that curses Thebes.

Further, despite the efforts of
Oedipus to learn the truth so that he can quell the plague that torments the citizens of Thebes,
he cannot change his fate that he is cursed and the cause of the plague himself. When the
shepherd tells Oedipus why he rescued him as a baby,

I
pitied the baby, my king,
And I thought that this man would take him far
away
To his own country. 
                He saved him--but for what a
fate!
For, if you are what this man says you are,
No man living is more
wretched than Oedipus. (1113-1117)

Oedipus realizes that
he has been victimized by fate and his choices have been limited since his fate has loomed over
him from his birth. Above all, his ignorance of his past has prevented him from helping his
subjects and even himself.