"The strength of Necessity cannot be resisted" (Prometheus 105). "From ills given by the gods there is no escape" (Seven against Thebes 719). Such is the philosophy of life commonly accepted by critics as the guiding principle of Greek tragedy. The judgment is a natural one to make. Do we not see the characters
struggling vainly against fate or heavenly powers that contrive for them disaster?

But helpless pieces of the game / He plays Upon this Chequer-board of Nights and Days; / Hither and thither moves, and checks, and slays, / And, one by one, back in the Closet lays.