The Mythology Book

86

UNFORTUNATE

OEDIPUS—OF ALL

MEN, LEAST TO

BE ENVIED!

THE FATE OF OEDIPUS

K

ing Laius of Thebes was

warned by his soothsayer

(a psychic) never to father a

child. If he did, the soothsayer

prophesied, the king’s son would

grow up to kill him, and then marry

his wife. However, Laius’s queen,

Jocasta, was irresistibly beautiful.

Eventually he was overcome with

desire and they slept together. Nine

months later, Jocasta gave birth to

a son, Oedipus.

Home from home

Mindful of the prophecy, Laius gave

the baby to a servant, and told him

to leave Oedipus on the

mountainside to die. But a

shepherd family found the baby

and took care of him, later handing

him over to King Polybus and

Queen Merope of Corinth, who had

no children of their own. Oedipus

grew up happily but one day heard

it muttered that he wasn’t his

parents’ child. He went to Delphi to

ask the Oracle, and discovered that

he was fated to kill his father and

wed his mother. Distraught at the

thought of killing Polybus and

marrying Merope, Oedipus left

Corinth and fled toward Thebes—

unaware that this was the home of

his biological family.

Prophecy fulfilled

On the road to Thebes, Oedipus

met a self-important dignitary, who

demanded that Oedipus make way

for him. He quarreled with the man

and killed him, not realizing that he

was King Laius, his father. When

he then fell in love with the King’s

widow, Jocasta, Oedipus had no

idea she was his own mother.

Any man who hoped to marry

Jocasta and become the new king

of Thebes had to solve a riddle

Oedipus answers the Sphinx in

this detail of a sarcophagus from the

Hellenistic Period (ca. 323–31 bce),

now displayed in the National

Archaeological Museum in Athens.

IN BRIEF

THEME

Fate

SOURCE

Oedipus Tyrannus, Sophocles,

ca. 430 bce.

SETTING

Thebes.

KEY FIGURES

Laius King of Thebes.

Jocasta Queen of Thebes;

wife of Laius, then Oedipus.

Oedipus Son of Laius and

Jocasta.

Polybus and Merope The

king and queen of Corinth.

The Oracle Also known as

the Pythia; a woman widely

revered for her prophecies.

The Sphinx A creature that

asked riddles and punished

any who answered incorrectly.

Tiresias The blind prophet

of Thebes.

US_086-087_Oedipus.indd 86 05/12/17 4:15 pm

87

Oedipus blinds himself upon

learning his wife’s identity in this

miniature from De Casibus Virorum

Illustrium (“On the Fates of Famous

Men”), Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375).

See also: The Olympian gods 24–31 ■ Orestes avenges Agamemnon 64–65 ■ The quest of Odysseus 66–71 ■

Eshu the trickster 294–97

ANCIENT GREECE

posed by the human-headed, lion-

bodied, and bird-winged creature

known as the Sphinx. “What,” the

Sphinx asked, “goes on four legs in

the morning, two legs at noon, and

three legs in the evening?” Oedipus

did not hesitate: “Man,” he replied.

As an infant, man crawls on all

fours; then he walks upright; finally,

in old age, he shuffles along with

the help of a stick.

Doomed by destiny

Oedipus and Jocasta were wed,

lived happily in the palace, and had

several children before Thebes was

struck by a devastating plague.

When all the rituals and sacrifices

failed to provide a cure, the blind

prophet Tiresias told the astonished

king that he had doomed the

city with his own actions. When

Tiresias explained to Oedipus that

the man he had fought and killed

was his father, Oedipus realized

that Jocasta was his mother. At

this revelation, Jocasta committed

suicide, and when Oedipus found

her body, he drove her dress pins

into his eyes, blinding himself.

Although Oedipus had not been

aware that he was committing

patricide or incest, his behavior had

to be punished. Despite his royal

birth, integrity, and ability to

answer the hardest riddle, Oedipus

was as unable as any of us to

escape his destiny. ■

The Oedipus Complex

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939),

the founder of psychoanalysis,

shocked the world with his

theories of the unconscious.

His idea that people were

driven by parts of their

personality of which they had

no knowledge was profoundly

upsetting at that time. Special

outrage was reserved for his

theory of the “Oedipus

complex,” named after the

characters in Sophocles’s play.

In every family, said Freud,

the son subconsciously yearns

to possess his mother—his

very first love from infancy—

and oust his father from first

place in her affections.

Freud’s theories were

unfalsifiable—impossible to

prove or disprove—and many

are discounted by modern

psychiatrists. Yet the idea of

the Oedipus complex persists

in popular culture, as it helps

to make emotional sense of

seemingly irrational rivalries

and jealousies within families.

W hat ma n’s

misfortunes ever

threw his successes

into so violent

a reverse?

Oedipus Tyrannus

US_086-087_Oedipus.indd 87 05/12/17 4:15 pm