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 294–97ANCIENT 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. WhenTiresias 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 TyrannusUS_086-087_Oedipus.indd 87 05/12/17 4:15 pm