>I am helping my son with a paper on (Sophocles') Oedipus and would
>appreciate any pointers to some good work on the Greek concept of
>fate.
I don't think one should look for "the" Greek concept of fate (or, for that matter "the" Greek concept of anything). But a Greek concept of Fate that I find most valuable is that adumbrated by Herakleitos in the phrases "Character, for Man, is Destiny" ("eythos anthropo daimon"- Fragment 119) and "it is hard to fight with anger; for what it wants it buys at the price of soul" ("thumo makesthai kalepon ho gar an theley psucheys oneitai"-Fragment 85).
Thus, in Oedipus, his Fate is determined by the anger in his character-- against the unknown man old enough to be his father at the place where three roads meet; by his anger against the counsel of Teireisias (and against his own eyes) in Thebes; and by his anger against both his sons at Colonnus.
Herakleitos's concept of Fate is fundamental in Wagnerian music-drama. For instance, Siegfried is set on the path to his downfall when he angrily decapitates his foster-father Mime (the orchestral music, not the words, makes this unmistakeably clear). Conversely, Parsifal is set on the path to his triumph when he destroys his bow out of compassion for the swan he has just killed.
Shane Mage
"This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire, kindling in measures and going out in measures."
Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 30