Oedipus, << EHD uh puhs >>, was a king of Thebes in Greek mythology. Many ancient authors wrote different versions of the story of Oedipus. The following version is based largely on Oedipus Rex, a tragedy by the Greek playwright Sophocles.
The oracle (prophet) of Delphi told King Laius of Thebes that a son born to his wife, Queen Jocasta, would kill him (see Delphi). After Jocasta gave birth to a son, Laius ordered the baby taken to a mountain and left to die. However, a shepherd rescued the child and brought him to King Polybus of Corinth. Polybus adopted the boy and named him Oedipus.
Oedipus grew up in Corinth. As a young man, he learned from the oracle that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Believing that Polybus was his father, Oedipus tried to avoid the prophecy by fleeing Corinth. On the road to Thebes, he quarreled with a man and killed him. The stranger was King Laius.
Near Thebes, Oedipus encountered a monster called the Sphinx. She had a woman’s head, a lion’s body, and a bird’s wings. The Sphinx killed everyone who could not solve this riddle: What has one voice and becomes four-footed, two-footed, and three-footed? The Sphinx asked Oedipus the riddle, which no one had solved. He answered: Man, who crawls on all fours as a baby, then walks on two legs, and finally needs a cane in old age. The Sphinx killed herself because Oedipus had solved the riddle. Oedipus was rewarded by being made king of Thebes. He married Jocasta, the widowed queen.
Several years later, a plague struck Thebes. The oracle said it would end when the murderer of Laius had been driven from Thebes. Oedipus investigated the murder and came to realize that Laius was the man he had killed on the road to Thebes. He then discovered that Laius was his father and Jocasta his mother. Oedipus blinded himself, and Jocasta hanged herself. Oedipus was banished from Thebes. He died at Colonus, near Athens.
