Classical Mythology

THE THEBAN SAGA 383

middle of my head and struck me with the two-pronged goad. But he paid for
this with interest; struck promptly by the staff in this hand of mine, he quickly
tumbled out of the chariot. I killed them all.^1
The old man, whom Oedipus did not recognize, was Laius. The curse of
Pelops was being fulfilled.

OEDIPUS AND THE SPHINX

So Oedipus came to Thebes, a city in distress; not only was the king dead, but also
the city was plagued by a monster sent by Hera, called Sphinx (which means "stran-
gler"). This creature had the face of a woman, the body of a lion, and the wings of
a bird. It had learned a riddle from the Muses, which it asked the Thebans. Those
who could not answer the riddle, it ate; and it was prophesied that Thebes would
be free of the Sphinx only when the riddle was answered. The riddle was: "What
is it that has one name that is four-footed, two-footed, and three-footed?"^2 No The-
ban had been able to find the answer; and in despair, the regent Creon (son of Me-
noeceus and brother of Jocasta) offered both the throne and his sister as wife to
anyone who could do so. Oedipus succeeded. "Man," said he, "is the answer: for
as an infant he goes upon four feet; in his prime upon two; and in old age he takes
a stick as a third foot." And so the Sphinx threw itself off the Theban acropolis;
Oedipus became king of Thebes and husband of the widowed queen, his mother.

THE RECOGNITION OF OEDIPUS

Thus the prophecy of Apollo was fulfilled; what remained was for the truth to
be discovered. There are three versions, two Homeric and one Sophoclean, of
Oedipus' fate. According to Homer, Epicasta (Homer's name for Jocasta) mar-
ried her own son "and the gods speedily made it known to mortals. Unhappily
he reigned on at Thebes, but she went down to the house of Hades, fastening a
noose to the roof of the lofty hall" (Odyssey 11. 271). In the Iliad, Oedipus is spo-
ken of as having fallen in battle. In this version, another wife is the mother of
the children of Oedipus.
The most widely accepted story, however, is the later version, that of Sopho-
cles. Oedipus and Jocasta lived happily together, and she bore him two sons,
Polynices and Eteocles, and two daughters, Antigone and Ismene. After many
years, a plague afflicted Thebes, and the oracle of Apollo advised the Thebans
that it was the result of a pollution on their state, for the murderer of Laius was
in their midst. At this point, Polybus died, and the messenger who brought the
news also brought the invitation to Oedipus from the people of Corinth to be-
come their king. Oedipus, still thinking that Merope was his mother, refused to
return to Corinth; but the messenger—who was the same shepherd to whom
the infant exposed on Cithaeron had been given—tried to reassure him by telling
him that he was not in fact the son of Merope and Polybus. Oedipus then sent