Oedipus
Who was Oedipus in Greek mythology?
What led Oedipus to kill his father?
Why did Oedipus marry his mother?
What was the Sphinxâs riddle that Oedipus solved?
How did Jocasta die in the story of Oedipus?
Why is it called the Oedipus complex?
Oedipus, in Greek mythology, the king of Thebes who unwittingly killed his father, Laius, and married his mother. Homer related that Oedipusâs wife and mother (named EpikastĂš or Epicasta in this version of the myth) hanged herself when the truth of their relationship became known, though Oedipus apparently continued to rule at Thebes until his death. In the post-Homeric tradition, most familiar from Sophoclesâs plays Oedipus Rex (or Oedipus the King; performed sometime between 430 and 426 bce) and Oedipus at Colonus (produced posthumously in 401 bce), there are notable differences in emphasis and detail. Other sources for the myth of Oedipus include the second Olympian (or Pythian) ode by the lyric poet Pindar (born probably 518 bceâdied after 446, probably c. 438) and the play Seven Against Thebes (467 bce) by Aeschylus.
Myth
Birth, abandonment, and adoption
In many of the legends about Oedipus, his survival as an infant is decreed by the Fates and his tragic destiny by the Furies. According to one version of the story, Laius, king of Thebes, was warned by an oracle that his son would slay him. Accordingly, when his wife, Jocasta (Iocaste), bore a son, he had the baby exposed (a form of infanticide) on the mountain Cithaeron. (Tradition has it that the name âOedipus,â which means âSwollen-Foot,â 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, southwest of Thebes, and his wife (named Periboea or Merope in different versions) and was brought up as their son. In one version of the myth, Laius set the baby Oedipus adrift at sea in a locked chest, which was washed ashore near Corinth. It was found by Periboea, who passed the child off as her own.
In early manhood Oedipus visited the oracle at Delphi and learned that he was fated to kill his father and marry his mother. Unaware that Polybus and Periboea were not his birth parents, the horrified Oedipus resolved never to return to Corinth.
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The Sphinx asked all those who passed: âWhat being, with only one voice, has sometimes two feet, sometimes three, sometimes four, and is weakest when it has the most?â Those who could not answer were killed. Only Oedipus replied correctly: âMan.â
The defeat of the Sphinx and fulfillment of the prophecy
Traveling toward Thebes, Oedipus encountered Laius, who was traveling to Delphi in order to consult the oracle on how best to overcome the Sphinx, which had been terrorizing wayfarers near Thebes. Laius provoked a quarrel in which Oedipus killed him. Continuing on his way, Oedipus encountered the Sphinx, 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.
The tragic conclusion
A plague descended on Thebes and was attributed by the Delphic oracle to the murder of Laius. Still ignorant of the identity of the man he had killed, Oedipus sentenced the murderer to exile and cursed him, unaware that he was pronouncing the judgment on himself. The truth about Oedipusâs true parentage and how he had fulfilled the very prophecy he had been determined to circumvent was finally revealed by the seer Tiresias. The stricken Jocasta died by suicide, and Oedipus (in the most common versions of the myth) blinded himself and 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.
Oedipusâs calamitous trajectory passed on to his children. After his death his sons Eteocles and Polyneices fought for control of Thebes, ultimately killing each other. While Eteocles was given a royal funeral, Creon denounced Polyneices as a traitor and denied him a burial. Antigone secretly buried her brother and was condemned to death by Creon. In Sophoclesâs Antigone (442/441 bce), she died by suicide after being immured in a cave. Ismene was the only sibling who did not die tragically, despite attempting to share Antigoneâs fate by claiming that she helped to bury Polyneices.
Influence
Oedipus appears in the folk traditions of Albania, Finland, Cyprus, and Greece. The ancient story has intense dramatic appeal; through Roman tragedian 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 Russian-born composer Igor Stravinskyâs secular oratorio Oedipus Rex (1927), French writer AndrĂ© Gideâs Oedipe (1930), and French novelist Jean Cocteauâs La Machine infernale (1934; âThe Infernal Machineâ).
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Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud chose the term Oedipus complex to designate a sonâs feeling of love toward his mother and of jealousy and hate toward his father, although those were not emotions that motivated Oedipusâs actions or determined his character in any ancient version of the story.