Jocasta

Jocasta, called Epicaste in Homer, was a queen of Thebes, the daughter of Menoeceus and sister of Creon. She was the wife of King Laius and, without knowing it, the mother and then the wife of her own son Oedipus. In the oldest account she hangs herself when the truth comes out.

Jocasta’s Family

Apollodorus says that Laius married a daughter of Menoeceus, whom some call Jocasta and others Epicaste (Apollodorus, Library 3.5.7). Creon, who rules Thebes in the story of Oedipus, is also called the son of Menoeceus, and Oedipus calls him his brother-in-law (Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus 85). The oldest source for the myth is Homer, who calls her Epicaste, the mother of Oedipus (Odyssey 11.271–280).

Laius, the Oracle and the Exposed Child

An oracle told Laius that he would die at the hands of a son born to him and Jocasta. In Sophocles, Jocasta herself relates that the child had been born only three days when Laius joined its ankles together and had it thrown out by others on a mountain with no paths (Oedipus Tyrannus 711–719). Apollodorus says Laius, flushed with wine, lay with his wife in spite of the oracle, and when the child was born he gave it to a herdsman to expose, with the ankles pierced. The infant was found by herdsmen of Polybus, king of Corinth, and brought up by Polybus and his wife as their own; he was called Oedipus, “swollen foot”, because of his ankles (Apollodorus, Library 3.5.7; Euripides, Phoenician Women 21–31). In Sophocles the baby was meant for the glens of Mount Cithaeron, but the Theban herdsman, out of pity, handed him to a Corinthian shepherd, who gave him to the childless Polybus (Oedipus Tyrannus 1022–1040, 1178). Jocasta’s own part is stated when Oedipus asks the herdsman whether the baby was given to him by a woman and learns that it was the child’s mother (Oedipus Tyrannus 1171–1175).

Jocasta and Oedipus

Believing Polybus and his wife to be his parents, Oedipus went to Delphi, heard that he would lie with his mother and kill his father, and fled from Corinth so as never to see the oracle fulfilled (Oedipus Tyrannus 787–797). Where three roads meet, a herald and an old man in a carriage tried to drive him off the road; in the quarrel Oedipus killed the old man and his attendants, not knowing that it was Laius, his father (Oedipus Tyrannus 800–813). Thebes was then plagued by the Sphinx, and Creon, who had taken over the kingdom, announced that whoever solved her riddle would have the kingdom and the wife of Laius. Oedipus solved the riddle, became king, and unwittingly married his mother (Apollodorus, Library 3.5.7–8). According to Apollodorus she bore him two sons, Polynices and Eteocles, and two daughters, Ismene and Antigone. He adds that some say the children were born to Oedipus by Eurygania, daughter of Hyperphas; Pausanias prefers that version, because Homer says that the gods made the marriage known at once (Apollodorus, Library 3.5.8; Pausanias 9.5.10–11; Homer, Odyssey 11.271–274).

The Discovery and Jocasta’s Death

In Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus, a plague strikes Thebes and Oedipus sets out to find the murderer of Laius. Jocasta tries to reassure him by telling him about the oracle to Laius and how the child was exposed, and she says that many men have shared their mother’s bed in dreams (Oedipus Tyrannus 711–725, 980–983). As the truth appears, she begs him not to go on asking, and when he will not, she leaves with the cry that she can call him only “unhappy man” (Oedipus Tyrannus 1060–1072). A messenger then reports that she went to her bedchamber, shut the doors, called on the long-dead Laius and lamented the bed where she had borne husband by husband and children by her child (Oedipus Tyrannus 1241–1250). Oedipus broke in and found her hanging in a twisted noose; he took down the body and blinded himself with the gold brooches from her dress (Oedipus Tyrannus 1262–1270). The Odyssey agrees that she hanged herself: she fastened a high noose from a lofty beam, overcome by sorrow (Odyssey 11.277–279; Apollodorus, Library 3.5.9).

Euripides tells a different story. In his Phoenician Women Jocasta is still alive years later, and she kills herself with a sword over the bodies of her sons Eteocles and Polynices after they have killed each other, with an arm around each (Euripides, Phoenician Women 1455–1459).

Jocasta Sources

Homer, Odyssey 11.271–280; Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus 85, 711–725, 787–813, 980–983, 1022–1040, 1060–1072, 1171–1178, 1241–1270; Euripides, Phoenician Women 21–31, 1455–1459; Apollodorus, Library 3.5.7–9; Pausanias 9.5.10–11.

See Also: Laius, Oedipus, Antigone, Ismene, Creon, Polynices, Eteocles, Sphinx