In literature, self-fulfilling prophecies are often used as
plot devices. They have been used in stories for millennia, but are especially popular in
science fiction and
fantasy. They are often used for
dramatic irony, with the prophesied events coming to pass due to the attempts to prevent the prophecy. They are also sometimes used as
comic relief.
Classical Many myths, legends, and fairy-tales make use of this motif as a central element of narratives that are designed to illustrate
inexorable fate, fundamental to the Hellenic world-view. In a common motif, a child, whether newborn or not yet conceived, is prophesied to cause something that those in power do not want to happen, but the prophesied events come about as a result of the actions taken to prevent them.
Greek The word "prophet" is derived from the Greek word
prophete, meaning "one who speaks for another." in the arms of
Phorbas The best-known example from Greek legend is that of Oedipus. Warned that his child would one day kill him,
Laius abandoned his newborn son Oedipus to die, but Oedipus was found and raised by others, and thus in ignorance of his true origins. When he grew up, Oedipus was warned that he would kill his father and marry his mother. He sought to avoid this, and, believing his foster parents to be his real parents, left his home and travelled to Greece, eventually reaching the city where his biological parents lived. There, he got into a fight with a stranger, killed him, and married his widow, only to discover that the stranger he had killed was his biological father, and his new wife was his biological mother. Although the legend of
Perseus opens with the prophecy that he will kill his grandfather
Acrisius, the prophecy is only self-fulfilling in some variants. In some, he accidentally spears his grandfather at a competition—an act that could have happened regardless of
Acrisius' response to the prophecy. In other variants, his presence at the games is due to his hearing of the prophecy. In still others, Acrisius is one of the wedding guests when
Polydectes tries to force Danaë to marry him, and is accidentally killed when
Perseus turns all the guests to stone with the
Gorgon's head. Greek historiography provides a famous variant: when the Lydian king
Croesus asked the
Delphic Oracle if he should invade Persia, the response came that if he did, he would destroy a great kingdom. Assuming this meant he would succeed, he attacked, only to fail—the kingdom he destroyed was his own. When it was predicted that
Cronos would be overthrown by his son, and usurp his throne as King of the Gods, Cronus ate his children, each shortly after they were born, enraging his wife, Rhea. To get revenge, when she bore Zeus, she gave Cronos a stone to eat instead, sending Zeus to be raised by
Amalthea. Cronos' attempt to avoid the prophecy made Zeus his enemy, ultimately leading to its fulfilment.
Roman nursed by a she-wolf The story of
Romulus and Remus is another example. According to legend, a man overthrew his brother, the king. He then ordered that his two nephews, Romulus and Remus, be drowned, fearing that they would someday kill him as he did to his brother. The boys were placed in a basket and thrown in the
Tiber River. A wolf found the babies and she raised them. Later, a shepherd found the twins and named them Romulus and Remus. As teenagers, they discovered their heritage, and killed their uncle in revenge, fulfilling the prophecy.
Arabic A variation of the self-fulfilling prophecy is the self-fulfilling dream, which dates back to medieval
Arabic literature. Several tales in the
One Thousand and One Nights, also known as the
Arabian Nights, use this device to
foreshadow what is going to happen, as a special form of literary
prolepsis. A notable example is "
The Ruined Man Who Became Rich Again Through a Dream", in which a man is told in his dream to leave his native city of
Baghdad and travel to
Cairo, where he will discover the whereabouts of some hidden treasure. The man travels there and experiences misfortune after losing belief in the prophecy, ending up in jail, where he tells his dream to a police officer. The officer mocks the idea of foreboding dreams and tells the protagonist that he himself had a dream about a house with a courtyard and fountain in Baghdad where treasure is buried under the fountain. The man recognizes the place as his own house and, after he is released from jail, he returns home and digs up the treasure. In other words, the dream not only revealed a course of action but allowed its revelation to be actualized. A variant of this story later appears in
English folklore as the "
Pedlar of Swaffham". Another variation of the self-fulfilling prophecy can be seen in "
The Tale of Attaf", where
Harun al-Rashid consults his library (the
House of Wisdom), reads a random book, "falls to laughing and weeping and dismisses the faithful
vizier"
Ja'far ibn Yahya from sight. Ja'far, "disturbed and upset flees Baghdad and plunges into a series of adventures in
Damascus, involving Attaf and the woman whom Attaf eventually marries." After returning to Baghdad, Ja'far reads the same book that caused Harun to laugh and weep, and discovers that it describes his own adventures with Attaf. In other words, it was Harun's reading of the book that provoked the adventures described in the book to take place. This is an early example of
reverse causality. In the 12th century, this tale was
translated into Latin by
Petrus Alphonsi and included in his
Disciplina Clericalis. In the 14th century, a version of this tale also appears in the
Gesta Romanorum and
Giovanni Boccaccio's
The Decameron.
Hinduism playing his flute with
Radha Self-fulfilling prophecies appear in classical
Sanskrit literature. In the story of
Krishna in the
Indian epic Mahabharata, the ruler of the
Mathura kingdom,
Kamsa, afraid of a prophecy that predicted his death at the hands of his sister
Devaki's son, had her cast into prison where he planned to kill all of her children at birth. After killing the first six children, and Devaki's apparent miscarriage of the seventh, Krishna (the eighth son) was born. As his life was in danger he was smuggled out to be raised by his foster parents
Yashoda and
Nanda in the village of
Gokula. Years later, Kamsan learned about the child's escape and kept sending various demons to put an end to him. The demons were defeated at the hands of Krishna and his brother
Balarama. Krishna, as a young man returned to Mathura to overthrow his uncle, and Kamsa was eventually killed by his nephew Krishna. It was due to Kamsa's attempts to prevent the prophecy that it came true, thus fulfilling the prophecy.
Ruthenian Oleg of Novgorod was a
Varangian prince who ruled over the
Rus people during the early tenth century. As old
East Slavic chronicles say, it was prophesied by the pagan priests that Oleg's stallion would be the source of Oleg's death. To avoid this he sent the horse away. Many years later he asked where his horse was, and was told that it had died. He asked to see the remains and was taken to the place where the bones lay. When he touched the horse's skull with his boot a snake slithered from the skull and bit him. Oleg died, thus fulfilling the prophecy. In the
Primary Chronicle, Oleg is known as the Prophet, ironically referring to the circumstances of his death. The story was romanticized by
Alexander Pushkin in his celebrated ballad "The Song of the Wise Oleg". In Scandinavian traditions, this legend lived on in the saga of
Orvar-Odd.
European fairy-tales Many fairy-tales, such as
The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs,
The Fish and the Ring,
The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars, or
The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate, feature a prophecy that a poor boy will marry a rich girl (or, less frequently, a poor girl will marry a rich boy). This is story type 930 in the
Aarne–Thompson classification scheme. The girl's father's efforts to prevent it are the reason why the boy ends up marrying her. Another fairy-tale occurs with older children. In
The Language of the Birds, a father forces his son to tell him what the birds say: that the father would be the son's servant. In
The Ram, the father forces his daughter to tell him her dream: that her father would hold an ewer for her to wash her hands in. In both, the father takes the child's response as evidence of malice and drives the child off; this allows the child to change so that the father will not recognize his own offspring later and so offer to act as the child's servant. In some variants of
Sleeping Beauty, such as
Sun, Moon, and Talia, the sleep is not brought about by a curse, but a prophecy that she will be endangered by flax (or hemp) results in the royal order to remove all the flax or hemp from the castle, resulting in her ignorance of the danger and her curiosity.
Shakespeare Shakespeare's
Macbeth is another classic example of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The three witches prophecy that Macbeth will eventually become king, but that the offspring of his best friend will rule instead of his own. Spurred by the prophecy, Macbeth kills the king and his own friend, something he arguably would not have done otherwise, leading to a revolution against him, and his death. The later prophecy by the first apparition of the witches that Macbeth should "Beware Macduff" is also a self-fulfilling prophecy. If Macbeth had not been told this, then he might not have regarded Macduff as a threat. Therefore, he would not have killed Macduff's family, and Macduff would not have sought revenge and killed Macbeth.
Modern New age religion The
law of attraction is a typical example of self-fulfilling prophecy. It is the name given to the belief that "like attracts like" and that by focusing on positive or negative thoughts, one can bring about positive or negative results. According to this law, all things are created first by imagination, which leads to thoughts, then to words and actions. The thoughts, words and actions held in mind affect someone's intentions which makes the expected result happen. Although there are some cases where positive or negative attitudes can produce corresponding results (principally the
placebo and
nocebo effects), there is no scientific basis to the law of attraction. ==Sports==