Oedipus the King Wiki Pedia

Much of the myth of Oedipus takes place before the opening scene of the play. The main character of the tragedy is Oedipus, son of King Laius of Thebes and Queen Jocasta. After Laius learned from an oracle that "he was doomed/To perish by the hand of his own son," Jocasta ordered a messenger to injure his foot with a pin and leave the baby (Oedipus) for dead "In Cithaeron's wooded glens"; Instead, the baby was found and rescued by a shepherd, named Oedipus (which actually means "cleft foot") and raised in the court of King Polybus of Corinth. As a young man in Corinth, Oedipus heard a rumor that he was not the biological son of Polybus and Merope. When Oedipus asked them, they denied it. Oedipus remained suspicious and decided to ask the Delphic Oracle who his real parents were. The Oracle seemed to ignore this question, but instead told him that he was destined to "Mate with [his] own mother, and shed/ With [his] own hands the blood of [his] own sire." Oedipus left Corinth under the belief that Polybus and Merope, Polybus' wife, were his true parents. On the road to Thebes, he met Laius and they argued over which wagon had the right-of-way. Oedipus' pride led him to kill Laius, ignorant of the fact that he was his biological father, fulfilling part of the oracle's prophecy. Oedipus then went on to solve the Sphinx's riddle: "What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three in the evening?" To this Oedipus answered "Man," Distraught that her riddle had been answered correctly, the Sphinx threw herself off the side of the wall. His reward for freeing the kingdom of Thebes from the Sphinx's curse was kingship and the hand of the queen, Jocasta, who was also his biological mother. Thus, the prophecy was fulfilled.

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