Laius

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Laius

In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
, King Laius, or Laios of Thebes was a divine hero and key personage in the Theban founding myth

Founding myth

A national myth is an inspiring narrative or anecdote about a nation's past. Such myths often serve as an important national symbol and affirm a set of national values....
. Son of Labdacus

Labdacus

In Greek mythology, Labdacus was the only son of Polydorus and a king of Thebes . Labdacus was a grandson of Thebes' founder, Cadmus. His mother was Nycteis, daughter of Nycteus....
, he was raised by the regent Lycus

Lycus (brother of Nycteus)

In Greek Mythology, Lycus was a ruler of the ancient city of Thebes, Greece. His rule was preceded by the regency of Nycteus, and he was succeeded by the twins Amphion and Zethus....
after the death of his father.

Abduction of Chrysippus
While Laius was still young, Amphion and Zethus

Amphion and Zethus

Amphion and Zethus , in ancient Greek mythology, were the twin sons of Zeus by Antiope . They are important characters in one of the two founding myths of the city of Thebes, Greece, because they constructed the city's walls....
usurped the throne of Thebes.

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In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Founding myth

A national myth is an inspiring narrative or anecdote about a nation's past. Such myths often serve as an important national symbol and affirm a set of national values....
. Son of Labdacus

Labdacus

Lycus (brother of Nycteus)

Abduction of Chrysippus

While Laius was still young, Amphion and Zethus

Amphion and Zethus

Cadmus

Cadmus or Kadmos , in Greek mythology mythology, was a Phoenician prince, the son of Agenor and the brother of Phoenix , Cilix and Europa ....
continue, smuggled Laius out of the city before their attack, in which they killed Lycus and took the throne. Laius was welcomed by Pelops

Pelops

In Greek mythology, Pelops , king of Pisa in the Peloponnesus, was venerated at Olympia, Greece, where his cult developed into the founding myth of the Ancient Olympic Games, the most important expression of unity, not only for the Peloponnesus, "land of Pelops", but for all Hellenes....
, king of Pisa

Pisa (Greece)

Pisa was the name of an ancient town in the western Peloponnese, Greece. The area controlled by Pisa was called Pisatis, which included Olympia, Greece, the site of the Ancient Olympic Games....
in the Peloponnesus. Laius abducted and raped the king's son, Chrysippus

Chrysippus (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Chrysippus was a divine hero of Elis in the Peloponnesus, a young boy, the Illegitimacy son of Pelops king of Pisa in the Peloponnesus and the nymph Axioche....
, and carried him off to Thebes while teaching him how to drive a chariot, or as Hyginus

Gaius Julius Hyginus

Gaius Julius Hyginus was a Latin author, though whether a native of Spain or of Alexandria it is not clear, a pupil of the famous Alexander Cornelius, and a freedman of Caesar Augustus, by whom he was made superintendent of the Palatine library, according to Suetonius' minor works, De Grammaticis, 20....
records it, during the Nemean games

Nemean Games

The Nemean Games were one of the four Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece, and were held at Nemea every two years.With the Isthmian Games, the Nemean Games were held both the year before and the year after the Olympic Games and the Pythian Games in the third year of the Olympiad cycle....
. This abduction was the subject of one of the lost tragedies of Euripides

Euripides

Euripides was the last of the three great tragedy of classical Athens . Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias....
. With both Amphion and Zethus having died in his absence, Laius became king of Thebes upon his return.

Later misfortunes

After the anal rape of Chrysippus, Laius married Jocasta

Jocasta

In Greek mythology, Jocasta, also known as Jocaste , Epikast?, or Iokast? was a daughter of Menoeceus and Queen consort of Thebes, Greece....
or Epicasta, the daughter of Menoeceus

Menoeceus

In Greek mythology, Menoeceus was the father of Creon, and both grandfather and father-in-law of Oedipus. According to Hyginus, during the reign of Oedipus when the Seven Against Thebes laid siege to the city, he committed suicide by throwing himself from walls after Tiresias foretold that if anyone of the Sparti should perish, Thebes would...
, a descendant of the Spartoi. Laius received an oracle

Oracle

An oracle is a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophecy opinion; an infallible authority, usually Spirituality in nature....
from Delphi

Delphi

Delphi is an archaeology site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis. Delphi was the site of the Pythia, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, when it was a major site for the worship of the god Apollo after he slew the Python , a deity who lived there and protecte...
which told him that he must not have a child with his wife, or the child would kill him and marry her. One night, however, Laius was drunk and fathered Oedipus

Oedipus

Oedipus was a Greek mythology monarch of Thebes, Greece. He fulfilled a prophecy that said he would kill his father and marry his mother, and thus brought disaster on his city and family....
with her. Laius ordered the baby, Oedipus, to have his feet bound and to be exposed on Mount Cithaeron, but he was taken by a shepherd and given to King Polybus

Polybus

Polybus was one of the pupils of Hippocrates, and also his son-in-law. He lived on the island of Kos in the 4th century BC. With his brothers-in-law, Thessalus and Draco , he was one of the founders of the Dogmatic school of medicine....
and Queen Merope

Merope

Merope was the name of several, probably unrelated, characters in Greek mythology.* Merope , one of the Heliades, daughter of Helios and Clymene...
(or Periboea

Periboea

In Greek mythology, nine people shared the name Periboea .#Periboea was the daughter of either King Cychreus of Salamis Island or of Alcathous....
) of Corinth who raised him to adulthood.

When Oedipus desired to know more about his parentage, he consulted the Delphic Oracle, only to be told that he must not go to his home or he would kill his father and marry his mother. Thinking that he was from Corinth, he set out toward Thebes to avoid this fate. At the road called 'Cleft Way,' he met Laius, who was going to Delphi to consult the oracle because he had received omens indicating that his son might return to kill him. Oedipus refused to defer to the king, although Laius's attendants ordered him to. Being angered, Laius either rolled a chariot wheel over his foot or hit him with his whip, and Oedipus killed Laius and all but one of his attendants. Laius was buried where he died by Damasistratus, the king of Plataea

Plataea

Plataea or Plataeae was an ancient city, located in Greece in southeastern Boeotia, south of Thebes . It was the location of the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC, in which an alliance of Greek city-states defeated the Persian Empire and ended the Persian Wars....
.

Many of Laius's descendants met with ill fortune, but whether this was because he violated the laws of hospitality and marriage by carrying off his host's child and raping him, or because he ignored the oracle's warning not to have children, or some combination of these, is not clear.

Laius

Abduction of Chrysippus

Later misfortunes

Spoken-word myths - audio files

Modern sources

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