OEDIPUS
Oidipous (Οἰδίπους)
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THE STORY
Exposed as an infant on Mount Cithaeron with pierced ankles, the child was found by herdsmen and brought to King Polybus and Queen Periboea of Corinth, who raised him as their own, naming him Oedipus ('Swell-foot'). 1
When taunted about his parentage, Oedipus consulted the Delphic oracle, which told him he would kill his father and wed his mother. Believing Polybus to be his true father, he fled Corinth. On the road to Thebes, he met Laius in a chariot; an argument over the right of way led Oedipus to strike down the stranger, unaware he had slain his real father. 2
Arriving at Thebes, he found the city besieged by the Sphinx. Oedipus successfully answered her riddle—that the creature going on four feet, two feet, and three feet is Man—causing the monster to destroy herself. In gratitude, the Thebans gave him the kingdom and the hand of their widowed queen, Jocasta. 3
He lived for years in ignorance of his crimes. When plague and barrenness struck Thebes, the seer Tiresias revealed that the pollution was Oedipus himself. Jocasta hanged herself; Oedipus put out his own eyes and was driven into exile, escorted only by his loyal daughter Antigone, until he found a final resting place at Colonus. 4