How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
OEDIPUS. Do you still have hope that the gods will have
Some regard for me, so that I will someday be saved?
ISMENE. I do, father, from the current prophecies. (385-87)
Oedipus finds all of his hope in what is fated to happen. He doesn’t really believe that he can change his future, but if it has been prophesied that he will be getting some relief, he’s very willing to hold onto that hope. Ismene shares his belief in fate, reporting the latest prophesies to him like an ancient Greek Twitter feed.
Quote #5
OEDIPUS. I bore most evil things, strangers! I bore
Them involuntarily, let the god know!
None of these things was chosen by myself. (521-23)
Oedipus tries one last time to convince the Chorus that even though he was destined to commit evil deeds, it was “involuntarily.” He even brings up the idea of free will explicitly: he didn’t choose any of it by himself. So he has the concept of free will, but really just wants human beings to recognize it, not the gods. Some lawyers out there might see this as an early use of the "not guilty by reason of insanity" defense.
Quote #6
OEDIPUS. To an evil marriage bed the city bound me—I who did not know
--To a disaster that came from a marriage.
CHORUS. With your mother, as I hear,
Did you fill your infamous bed?
OEDIPUS. Alas, it is death to hear these things [. . .]. (525-29)
Oedipus blames the city for his marriage, because after he solved the riddle of the Sphinx, the city of Thebes “gave” him Jocasta as a wife, thus making him king. So it’s not like he went after his mother, knowingly and of his own free will. Nope, it was just a matter of fate. What a terrible coincidence.