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Oedipus, in Greek mythology, the king of Thebes who unwittingly killed his

father and married his mother. Homer related that Oedipuss wife and mother
hanged herself when the truth of their relationship became known, though
Oedipus apparently continued to rule at Thebes until his death. In the postHomeric tradition, most familiar from Sophocles Oedipus Rex (or Oedipus the
King) andOedipus at Colonus, there are notable differences in emphasis and
detail.
According to one version of the story, Laius, king of Thebes, was warned by
anoracle that his son would slay him. Accordingly, when his wife, Jocasta
(Iocaste; in Homer, Epicaste), bore a son, he had the baby exposed (a form
of infanticide) onCithaeron. (Tradition has it that his name, which means
Swollen-Foot, was a result of his feet having been pinned together, but
modern scholars are skeptical of that etymology.) A shepherd took pity on the
infant, who was adopted by King Polybus of Corinth and his wife and was
brought up as their son. In early manhood Oedipus visited Delphi and upon
learning that he was fated to kill his father and marry his mother, he resolved
never to return to Corinth.
Traveling toward Thebes, he encountered Laius, who provoked a quarrel in
which Oedipus killed him. Continuing on his way, Oedipus found Thebes
plagued by theSphinx, who put a riddle to all passersby and destroyed those
who could not answer. Oedipus solved the riddle, and the Sphinx killed
herself. In reward, he received the throne of Thebes and the hand of the
widowed queen, his mother, Jocasta. They had four children: Eteocles,
Polyneices, Antigone, and Ismene. Later, when the truth became known,
Jocasta committed suicide, and Oedipus (according to another version), after
blinding himself, went into exile, accompanied by Antigone and Ismene,
leaving his brother-in-law Creon as regent. Oedipus died

at Colonus near Athens, where he was swallowed into the earth and became
a guardian hero of the land.
Oedipus appears in the folk traditions of Albania, Finland, Cyprus,
and Greece. The ancient story has intense dramatic appeal;
through Seneca the theme was transmitted to a long succession of
playwrights, including Pierre Corneille, John Dryden, and Voltaire. It had a
special attraction in the 20th century, motivating among other artists Russianborn composer Igor Stravinskys secular oratorioOedipus Rex, French
writer Andr Gides Oedipe, and French novelist Jean Cocteaus La Machine
infernale. Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud chose the term Oedipus
complex to designate a sons feeling of love toward his mother and of jealousy
and hate toward his father, although those were not emotions that motivated
Oedipuss actions or determined his character in any ancient version of the s

ophocles (495 BC-405 BC) was a famous and


successful Athenian writer of tragedies in his own
lifetime. Of his 120 plays, only 7 have
survived. Oedipus the King, also
called Oedipus Tyrannos or Oedipus Rex, written
around 420 BC, has long been regarded not only as
his finest play but also as the purest and most
powerful expression of Greek tragic drama.
Oedipus, a stranger to Thebes, became king of the
city after the murder of king Laius, about fifteen or
sixteen years before the start of the play. He was
offered the throne because he was successful in
saving the city from the Sphinx, an event referred to
repeatedly in the text of the play. He married Laius
widow, Jocasta, and had four children with her, two
sons, Eteocles and Polyneices, and two
daughters, Antigone and Ismene.

Oedipus
Thanks to psychoanalysist Sigmund Freud, the story of Oedipus has become one of the most
widely known in the modern world. However, because of Freud's 'Oedipus Complex', many
modern readers focus on his apparent love of his mother and hatred for his father; this is not in
fact in keeping with the Greek mythological tradition of Oedipus, the canonical version of which
can be found in Sophocles' trilogy: The Theban Plays.
Birth and Early Life
Oedipus was the child of Laius and Jocasta, the ruling couple of Thebes. Eager for futureknowledge, Laius journeyed to the oracle at Delphi who gave him the most unwelcome news
that his newborn son would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. Perturbed by this
news, Laius gave his new son to a herdsman and ordered him to be killed. A spike was driven
through baby Oedipus' ankles (causing his ankles to become inflamed and earn him his name,
which literally translates as 'swollen-footed') and he was left on the side of Mt. Cithaeron to die.
However, destiny cannot be avoided that easily and Oedipus survived, rescued by a peasant in
the employ of king Polybus of Corinth. The peasant took the infant to his master, who adopted
him gratefully since he and his wife Merope had been unable to conceive. Polybus and Merope
raised Oedipus as their own, but one night at a public feast, a drunken man shouted at Oedipus
that he had no idea who his father was. Although his adoptive parents implored Oedipus to
ignore the man's ravings, he could not put his mind to rest, and Oedipus resolved to travel to the
Oracle at Delphi and ask her the identity of his parents. The Oracle, however, did not tell
Oedipus who his parents were, rather revealing the disturbing prophecy that he would couple
with his mother and kill his father. Resolving that this should never come to pass, Oedipus did
not go back to Corinth, to those he believed to be his parents, but rather headed for Thebes. On
his journey, Oedipus came to a crossroads and was faced with a carriage driving the opposite
direction. The driver struck Oedipus to get him to move out of the way, but this enraged the
young man, who proceeded to fight and kill the driver and the man he was transporting - King
Laius. Having unwittingly fulfilled half of the prophecy, Oedipus carried on to Thebes.
The Sphinx
The Sphinx, a terrible monster with the body of a lion, wings of an eagle and head of a woman
had been sent by the gods to terrorise Thebes as punishment for Laius' misdeeds concerning
the rape of a prince of a neighbouring kingdom. This fiend would ask any passing traveller her
riddle, and if they were unable to answer correctly, she would devour them. Since no man had
been able to guess the answer, Thebes was effectively cut off from the outside world. When
Oedipus came to Thebes, the Sphinx asked him her riddle, which he was able to solve. The
story goes that she went mad and threw herself off a cliff, thus freeing Thebes from her
fearsome influence. The people of Thebes were so grateful to Oedipus that they proclaimed him
their king, since Laius had been mysteriously killed on the road. They also suggested that he
marry his widow, Jocasta, to solidify his position as ruler of the city. Thus the prophecy of the
Delphic oracle came to pass.
The Sphinx as a creature can be seen as early as the mid-3rd millennium BC in Egypt and
Mesopotamia, yet the Sphinx seems to have been, in these cultures, to be a religious figure
rather than a monster as is the case in the Greek tradition. It has been theorised that the Sphinx
is associated with Thebes due to a war between the Minyans and the Cadmeans and that the
Sphinx was acting on behalf of the Minyans by preventing the Cadmeans from leaving Thebes.

Although the riddle the Sphinx asked is not specified in any early Greek texts, late tradition
states that the question she asked was: 'What has four legs in the morning, two legs in the
afternoon and three legs in the evening?' When Oedipus gave her the answer 'man' (for as a
baby, man crawls on all fours, as a grown man he walks erect on two legs and in old age he
walks with the aid of a stick), she was bested and thus her reign of terror over Thebes was put
to an end.
Oedipus the King
Aristotle rates Sophocles' tragedy, 'Oedipus the King' as the greatest ever composed, and it is
this text which gives us the most detailed account of his fall from grace after his aforementioned
coronation. Sophocles sets the scene many years after Oedipus came to Thebes, when he has
been married to Jocasta for many years and sired four children, Antigone, Ismene, Polynices
and Eteocles. A plague has struck Thebes and a Priest begs Oedipus, the most cunning and
intelligent of all men, to find a solution. As it happens, Oedipus has already sent a messenger in
the form of his brother-in-law, Creon, to the oracle at Delphi in order to find out how he might
appease Apollo and stop the plague. Creon returns with the answer: the city itself is unclean as
it harbours the killer of Laius, and he must be found and punished before the city can become
cleansed. Oedipus swears to find and execute the murderer and brings down a curse on
anyone who harbours him, cursing himself and his family in the process.
Oedipus calls Tiresias, the blind prophet, to help him in his quest, but when the old man refuses
to reveal the painful truth to Oedipus, the king becomes angered, causing Tiresias to say that it
is Oedipus himself who pollutes the city and is the murderer of Laius. Outraged, Oedipus rails
against the prophet and accuses him of being in cahoots with Creon in an attempt to usurp his
throne. Oedipus remains resolute that Tiresias is lying until a messenger informs him of
Polybus' death and also of the fact that Oedipus was adopted. Against Jocasta's protestations,
Oedipus sends for the man who "disposed" of Laius' son, who happens to also be the sole
survivor of Oedipus' earlier attack on Laius' carriage. It comes out that Oedipus was the
unknown man who killed Laius from the revelation that the old king was killed at the same
crossroads Oedipus remembers from his fight. In addition, it is revealed that Oedipus was the
child Jocasta and Laius tried to expose to prevent the prophecy from coming to fruition. When
Jocasta realises this to be the case, she runs inside and hangs herself. Oedipus himself takes a
little longer to reach this conclusion, but when he does he follows his mother/bride inside,
removes her dress pins and uses them to gouge out his eyes, in a gesture which many read
psychosexually as Oedipus is violated by the phallic brooches as Jocasta had previously been
violated by her own son. Oedipus emerges from the palace blinded and bloody, and is sent out
of Thebes into exile by the man he had accused of plotting against him: Creon.
The Aftermath
The other plays of Sophocles in the Theban cycle, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone, tell the
story of what occurred after Oedipus' exile. Oedipus at Colonus tells of how Oedipus became a
wanderer, cared for by his daughter Antigone and how they came to be outside Athens where
Theseus took pity on the pair and looked after them both until Oedipus' death.
Antigone shows the happenings in Thebes after Oedipus' exile. Sophocles intimates that the
kingship was left in the hands of both Polynices and Eteocles, each ruling alternate years.
However, Creon had convinced Eteocles to hold on to power, causing Polynices to raise an
army and march against Thebes. The two brothers met in combat and killed each other, leaving
Creon as the ruler of Thebes (although it is unclear as to whether this was his original intention).
Creon decreed that the traitor, Polynices, was to be dishonoured by being denied a proper burial
and, thus, passage into the Underworld. Antigone takes it upon herself to inter her brother, but is

caught and sentenced to death. Tiresias later informs Creon of the gods' disapproval of this and
so the new king rushes to the cave where Antigone had been left to starve. It is, however, too
late and it transpires that Antigone has once again taken matters into her own hands and has
hung herself, causing Haemon (her betrothed and Creon's son) to kill himself also. The final
blow to Creon, upon hearing of this news, his wife Eurydice takes her own life by hanging,
leaving Creon desperate and alone, but still the sole ruler of Thebes.
Other versions of the Oedipus Myth
Although the quintessential version of the story of Oedipus is that given by Sophocles, the
unfortunate king of Thebes is mentioned by other Classical authors. For example, Aeschylus
wrote a trilogy concerning Oedipus (this is hardly surprising as it is believed that tragedy had a
very limited number of mythological families of which to tell). The third play in the trilogy
survives, 'Seven Against Thebes', and tells much the same story as Antigone, with the two sons
of Oedipus at battle over the throne of Cadmus. Ovid also mentions Oedipus, but only in
reference to him being the man who defeated the Sphinx, with no mention of his later
misfortune, thus is can be speculated that Oedipus' patricide and incest were not as central to
the ancients as they are to us today. This theory, however, is discredited when examining book
XI of Homer's Odyssey, which references Epicaste (an alternate name for Jocasta) as the
woman who, unbeknownst to either of them, married her son Oedipus (although Homer claims
that Oedipus went on ruling Thebes).
Oedipus' Fate and Responsibility
There has been much debate concerning the responsibility of Oedipus and the "fairness" of his
punishment. In Greek tragedy and myth in general, it is the norm that someone will suffer some
terrible fate as punishment for wrongdoing or some sacrilege. However, it seems as though
Oedipus himself has done nothing to warrant the punishment of his awful fate. In fact, the
citizens of Thebes in Sophocles' Oedipus the King revere him as the most intelligent of men
and as a good ruler, even referring to him as a father. As a result, this story has often been read
as a comment on the indiscriminate nature of fate, and that even the best of men can be cursed
with an unfair fate, which even the gods are unable to divert. This suggestion would imply that
Oedipus himself is not to blame for his actions, and thus deserves no punishment for them. An
alternative explanation has already been given above, that it was not Oedipus himself who was
cursed, but rather the entire line of Laius as payment for his rape of a young prince. Still others
suggest that Oedipus is allotted his fate as a pre-emptive penalty for the crimes proscribed in
the prophecy, implying that Oedipus would have committed these atrocities whether they were
fated or not, and thus the realisation he has committed them is fitting punishment for him.
Whichever explanation one finds most convincing, it can be agreed that Oedipus is not being
punished for a simple, tangible crime as is the case with many tragic heroes of Greek myth.
Oedipus the Scapegoat
It has been suggested that the myth of Oedipus is a metaphor for the ancient scapegoat ritual.
The scapegoat ritual was practiced when a community was in a state of emergency e.g. in the
grip of a plague or famine, and it involved expelling a pharmakos (human scapegoat) from the
town. The pharmakos was often a person of little consequence, such as a criminal or a cripple.
The pharmakos would be led like a sacrificial animal to a sacred precinct and either killed or
beaten (sources disagree on this point) and then ejected from the city, taking with it the evils
and sins of the community and, thus, purifying the town. The Oedipus story parallels this
practice quite closely, as Oedipus (technically a cripple) would normally be of little consequence
to the city of Thebes. Furthermore, he is physically harmed, albeit by himself, and exiled from
the city. It has been said (in Sophocles' version of the story) that when Laius' killer has been

removed from Thebes the plague will abate, thus implying that Oedipus is taking with him the
sins of the community, filling the role of the pharmakos and ending the crisis in the town

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