Oedipus

The son of Laius and Jocasta, King and Queen of Thebes, Oedipus is the main figure of one of the best-known legends of Greek mythology, dramatized above all in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. Left, while still a baby, to die in the mountains by his father – who had been warned that his son would kill him – Oedipus was eventually adopted by the childless King Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth (Sophocles, Oedipus the King 711–722, 774; in Apollodorus, Library 3.5.7, the queen is called Periboea). After accidentally finding about the gruesome prophecy himself, in fear and disgust the young Oedipus fled Corinth and wound up crossing paths with his real father at a place where three roads meet (Oedipus the King 786–813); after a brief argument with Laius’ charioteer over who had the right to go first, Oedipus killed both of them. Wandering aimlessly, he subsequently reached the city of Thebes where he encountered the monstrous gate-guarding Sphinx; after he answered her riddle, the Sphinx hurled herself to her death (Apollodorus, Library 3.5.8). As a reward for rescuing the city from this vicious beast, Oedipus was afterward offered the vacant throne of Thebes and the hand in marriage of the ex-king’s widow, his very own mother. Jocasta bore her son four children – Polynices, Eteocles, Antigone, and Ismene – before a belated investigation into the death of Laius led Oedipus into discovering the dreadful truth of his marriage. Upon realization, Jocasta hanged herself, and Oedipus blinded himself with two pins snatched from her dress (Oedipus the King 1235–1285). Homer knew a shorter version, in which the gods made the marriage known at once, Epicaste (Jocasta) hanged herself, and Oedipus went on ruling at Thebes in grief (Odyssey 11.271–280).

Oedipus, the Abandoned Prince

Oedipus' Biological Parents: Laius and Jocasta

The story of Oedipus starts before his own birth. Laius, the childless King of Thebes, consulted the Oracle at Delphi about having children. He was told that it would be better for him not to have them: any son born to him and Jocasta was destined to kill him (Sophocles, Oedipus the King 711–714; Euripides, Phoenician Women 13–20; Apollodorus, Library 3.5.7). Jocasta was the daughter of Menoeceus; Homer calls her Epicaste (Library 3.5.7; Odyssey 11.271). Laius tried staying away from his wife’s bed, but in Euripides’ and Apollodorus’ telling he was overcome by drink and lay with her (Phoenician Women 21–22; Library 3.5.7). Jocasta got pregnant and, in due time, gave birth to a baby boy. To thwart the prophecy, Laius had the baby’s ankles pinned together (Sophocles, Oedipus the King 717–719) – Apollodorus and Pausanias say they were pierced – and gave him to a shepherd to leave on Mount Cithaeron to die (Library 3.5.7; Pausanias 10.5.3). In Sophocles it is Jocasta who hands the baby over. The shepherd, unable to do such a thing, handed the baby over to a second shepherd, a Corinthian, who pastured his flocks on the same mountain (Oedipus the King 1138–1181).

Oedipus' Adoptive Parents: Polybus and Merope

This second shepherd took pity on the boy and brought him to the court of King Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth (Sophocles’ names). The royal couple, also childless, decided to adopt the baby and raise him as their own. The boy was named after his ankle wounds: Oedipus means “Swollen Foot” (Oedipus the King 1032–1036; Apollodorus, Library 3.5.7, who says the queen, there called Periboea, healed his ankles and named him). When Oedipus grew up, a man at a banquet, heavy with wine, told him that he was not the true son of his father (Oedipus the King 779–793). Deciding to investigate this matter, Oedipus ended up in Delphi, with an intention to learn the truth from the Oracle. The Pythia gave him no answer about his parents, but told him instead that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Upon hearing this, Oedipus decided to leave Corinth and never return to it, to avoid the prophecy; so he set out, and the road led him toward Thebes, the city of his birth (Oedipus the King 794–800).

Killing Laius

On his way there, at the meeting of three roads in Phocis, where the road from Daulis joins the road from Delphi, he came across a carriage carrying King Laius, his biological father. In Sophocles’ version Laius’ herald and the old man himself tried to push him off the road, and Oedipus struck back and killed the whole party except one servant, who escaped (Oedipus the King 800–813, 732–734). In Apollodorus the herald Polyphontes ordered him to make way and killed one of his horses when he delayed; Oedipus in a rage killed both Polyphontes and Laius (Library 3.5.7). Oedipus thus unknowingly fulfilled the first half of his prophecy. The place later became known as the Cleft Way (Pausanias 10.5.3).

The Riddle of the Sphinx

Soon after, Oedipus hit upon the terrible Sphinx, who had been sent against Thebes by Hera and who devoured those who failed to answer her riddle (Apollodorus, Library 3.5.8); Hesiod already knows her as the Phix, the bane of the Cadmeans (Theogony 326). The Sphinx asked Oedipus the same question she had asked the unfortunate ones before him: “What walks on four feet in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening?” (Apollodorus, Library 3.5.8). No one had ever answered the question correctly before. But Oedipus thought carefully and eventually solved the riddle: “Man – who crawls on all fours as a baby, then on two legs as an adult, and then with a walking stick when in old age.” The Sphinx, unable to bear the fact that her riddle had been answered correctly, hurled herself from the citadel to her death.

Oedipus the King

King of Thebes

After Laius’ death, Creon, the brother of the widowed Jocasta and Oedipus’ uncle, ruled Thebes. Even before Oedipus’ arrival, Creon had proclaimed that whoever freed the city from the Sphinx would receive the kingdom and Jocasta as his wife (Apollodorus, Library 3.5.8; Euripides, Phoenician Women 45–52); in Sophocles, Oedipus says only that the city put the rule into his hands as a gift he had not sought (Oedipus the King 383–385). Consequently – unbeknownst to him or, for that matter, anyone else – Oedipus’ reward for rescuing Thebes from the Sphinx would end up being a most bitter one: his father’s crown and marriage to his mother. Neither recognizing the other, Oedipus and Jocasta begot four children together: Polynices and Eteocles, Antigone and Ismene (Apollodorus, Library 3.5.8). Apollodorus notes that some said the children were borne to him by a second wife, Eurygania, daughter of Hyperphas, and Pausanias adopts that version (9.5.10–11).

The Plague

Years later, Thebes is hit with a terrible plague. Oedipus, determined to cure his city, sends Creon to Delphi; Creon returns with the news that the plague is divine pollution, to be lifted only when the killer of Laius is driven out or killed (Oedipus the King 1–150), Oedipus gives a solemn oath to find him and punish him severely – not realizing that the killer is himself (Oedipus the King 216–275). Oedipus questions the prophet Tiresias, who is blind. At one point, forced to speak, Tiresias declares that the king himself is the killer he seeks (Oedipus the King 300–462). However, Oedipus refuses to believe that he could have anything to do with Laius’ murder and instead blames Tiresias for plotting with Creon to depose him.

The Truth

Jocasta tries comforting Oedipus and, in the process, tells him how her husband died, at a place where three roads meet. It sounds strikingly like his own encounter on the road, and, visibly shaken, Oedipus sends for the one servant of Laius who survived (Oedipus the King 698–862). However, things go from bad to worse, even before the servant is brought to him: a messenger from Corinth enters the court and informs everyone that Polybus had died. Still believing that Polybus is his real father, Oedipus is somewhat relieved to hear this; however, fearing that the second part of the prophecy may still materialize, he declines to go to Corinth for fear of meeting his mother. The messenger tells Oedipus that he need not worry, for Polybus and Merope are not his real parents: he is the very man who, as a shepherd on Cithaeron, received the baby with the pinned ankles from a servant of Laius and gave him to Polybus (Oedipus the King 924–1050).

Self-blinding

Jocasta understands first: she begs him to stop asking, flees the scene in utter distress and hangs herself in her chamber (Oedipus the King 1054–1072, 1235–1264). Oedipus questions the old Theban shepherd, who is both the survivor of the attack on Laius and the man who gave away the baby, and learns that the worst is true: he had killed his father and married his mother (Oedipus the King 1110–1185). Oedipus tries to find Jocasta, and after locating her lifeless body, tears the gold pins from her gown and strikes his eyes (Oedipus the King 1266–1279). He asks to be driven out of the city, as he had decreed for the killer of Laius, and asks to be allowed to touch and speak to his two daughters, whom Creon then lets him embrace (Oedipus the King 1446–1523). In Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus, led by his daughter Antigone, Oedipus reaches Colonus near Athens, where King Theseus welcomes him. Years afterward, after cursing his sons, the blind and weary Oedipus is mysteriously taken from the world at a spot known only to Theseus (Oedipus at Colonus 1375–1396, 1518–1666). Apollodorus says only that he sat down as a suppliant in the precinct of the Eumenides, was kindly received by Theseus and died not long afterwards (Library 3.5.9). The Athenians later showed his grave in the precinct of the Eumenides (Pausanias 1.28.7).

The Aftermath

Polynices and Eteocles agreed to rule Thebes in alternate years, but when Eteocles refused to give up the throne, Polynices went to Argos, married the daughter of King Adrastus, and returned with an army (Apollodorus, Library 3.6.1–3.6.3; Euripides, Phoenician Women 69–76). The attack of the Seven Against Thebes (Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes) ended with both brothers killing each other; the conditions of their burial became the cause of the conflict between Antigone and Creon, once again king of Thebes (Sophocles, Antigone; Library 3.7.1).

Oedipus Sources

Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex” is widely considered one of the greatest plays ever written – if not the supreme masterpiece of classic Greek drama. Though the second one to be written, it constitutes the first part of Sophocles’ so-called Theban trilogy, as it is chronologically followed by both “Oedipus at Colonus” and “Antigone.” As always, Apollodorus summarizes the full story in his “Library” (3.5.7–3.5.9, 3.6.1). Homer alludes to Oedipus in the Odyssey (11.271–280) and the Iliad (23.677–680), Euripides’ Phoenician Women retells the family history (13–22, 45–52, 69–76), Hesiod names the Sphinx (Theogony 326), Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes dramatizes the war between the sons, and Pausanias describes the Cleft Way and local traditions (1.28.7, 9.5.10–12, 10.5.3).

See Also: Laius, Jocasta, Polynices, Eteocles, Antigone, Ismene, Seven Against Thebes, Polybus, Merope, Creon, Sphinx, Tiresias, Theseus