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Oedipus
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Oedipus (pronounced in American English or in British English; Greek: Oidípous meaning "swollen-footed") was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. He fulfilled a prophecy that said he would kill his father and marry his mother, and thus brought disaster on his city and family. This legend has been retold in many versions, and was used by Sigmund Freud to name the Oedipus complex.
pus was the son of King Laius & Queen Jocasta.
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Oedipus (pronounced in American English or in British English; Greek: Oidípous meaning "swollen-footed") was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. He fulfilled a prophecy that said he would kill his father and marry his mother, and thus brought disaster on his city and family. This legend has been retold in many versions, and was used by Sigmund Freud to name the Oedipus complex.
The story
Oedipus was the son of King Laius & Queen Jocasta. Before he was born, his parents consulted the Oracle at Delphi. The Oracle prophesied that Laius would be murdered by his son . In an attempt to prevent this prophecy's fulfillment, Laius ordered Oedipus's feet to be bound together, and pierced with a stake (which caused him to have permanently swollen feet – hence one meaning of Oedipus which translates to "swollen foot"; it also comes from the Greek root meaning knowledge). Afterwards, the baby was given to a herdsman who was told to kill him. The herdsman, feeling both pity for the child and fear of disobedience, instead gave him to another herdsman. The second herdsman took the infant Oedipus to the king of Corinth, Polybus, who adopted Oedipus as his son because he and his wife, Merope, could not have children. Oedipus was raised as the crown prince of Corinth.
Many years later Oedipus was told by a drunk that Polybus was not his real father. Seeking the truth, he looked for the truth from his parents. They denied that he was adopted, but Oedipus was unsure so instead sought counsel from an Oracle who told him that he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. In his attempt to evade the dictates of the Oracle, he decided to flee from Corinth to Thebes.
As Oedipus traveled to Thebes, he came to a crossroads ("where three roads meet") where he encountered a chariot, which, unbeknown to him, was driven by King Laius. A dispute arose over the right of way which resulted in Laius's death by Oedipus's hand. As the oracle predicted, Oedipus had slain his father. Continuing his journey to Thebes, Oedipus encountered a Sphinx. The Sphinx stopped all those who traveled to Thebes and asked them a riddle. If the travelers were unable to answer correctly, they were eaten by the Sphinx; if they were successful, they would be able to continue their journey. The riddle was: "What walks on four feet in the morning, two in the afternoon and three at night?". Oedipus answered: "Man; as an infant, he crawls on all fours, as an adult, he walks on two legs and, in old age, he relies on a walking stick". Oedipus was the first to successfully answer the riddle. Having heard Oedipus' answer, the sphinx threw herself to her death. Grateful, the Thebans appointed Oedipus as their king. Oedipus was also given the recently widowed Queen Jocasta's hand in marriage. Oedipus and Jocasta bore four children: two sons, Polynices and Eteocles (see Seven Against Thebes), and two daughters, Antigone and Ismene.
Many years after the marriage of Oedipus and Jocasta, a plague struck the city of Thebes. Oedipus, in his hubris, asserted that he would end the pestilence. He sent Creon, Jocasta's brother, to the Oracle at Delphi, seeking guidance. When Creon returned, Oedipus was told that the murderer of the former King Laius must be found and either be killed or exiled. In a search for the identity of the killer, Oedipus followed Creon's suggestion and sent for the blind prophet, Tiresias, who warned him not to try to find the killer. In a heated exchange, Tiresias was provoked into exposing Oedipus himself as the killer, and the fact that Oedipus was living in shame because he did not know who his true parents were. Oedipus blamed Creon for Tiresias telling Oedipus that he was the killer. Oedipus and Creon erupted in a heated argument. Jocasta enters and tries to calm down Oedipus. She tries to comfort him by talking to him about where, when, what Laius looked like (she said that Oedipus looked somewhat like him), and how many of the palace people were with Laius. Oedipus became unnevered because his mind started thinking that he might have killed Laius. Suddenly, a messenger arrives from Corinth with the news that King Polybus is dead, who Oedipus still regarded as his true father. The messenger then reveals the fact that Oedipus was adopted. Jocasta, finally realizing Oedipus' true identity, begs him to abandon his search for Laius's murderer. Oedipus mistook her pleas thinking that she was ashamed of him because he might have been a slave. She then went into the palace, where she hung herself. Oedipus seeks verification of the messenger's story from the very same herdsman who was said to have left Oedipus to die as a baby. From that herdsman, Oedipus learned that the infant raised as the adopted son of Polybus and Merope was the son of Laius and Jocasta. Thus, Oedipus finally realizes that earlier at the crossroads, he had killed his own father, King Laius, and as consequence, had married his own mother, Jocasta.
Oedipus goes in search of Jocasta and finds she has killed herself. Taking broches from her gown, Oedipus gouges his eyes. Oedipus asks for a few favors from Creon and leaves the city of Thebes. His daughter Antigone acted as his guide as he wandered blindly through the country, ultimately dying at Colonus, after being placed under the protection of Athens by King Theseus.
His two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, arranged to share the kingdom, each taking an alternating one-year reign. However, Eteocles refused to cede his throne after his year was up. Polynices brought in an army to oust Eteocles from his position, a battle ensued. At the end of the battle, the brothers both killed each other. Jocasta's brother, Creon, took the throne. He made the decision that Polynices was a "traitor," and should not be given burial rites. Defying this edict, Antigone attempted to bury her brother, but Creon ultimately had her killed.
There are many different endings to the legend of Oedipus due to its oral tradition. Significant variations on the legend of Oedipus is mentioned in fragments by several ancient Greek poets including Homer, Hesiod and Pindar. Most of what is known of Oedipus comes from a set of plays by Sophocles: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone.
Myths of Oedipus
Oedipus certainly a story of oral tradition before being written down. It was a growing and changing story that merged several tales from several sources. The first written references to Oedipus appear in the 7th-8th century BC.
Homer
Homer makes a passing reference to Oedipus in both the Odyssey and the Iliad. Without any mention of a Sphinx, Oedipus kills his father, marries his mother and becomes king. Oedipus later dies in exile.
I also saw Epicaste mother of Oedipodes whose awful lot it was to marry her own son without suspecting it. He married her after having killed his father, but the gods proclaimed the whole story to the world; whereon he remained king of Thebes, in great grief for the spite the gods had borne him; but Epicaste went to the house of the mighty jailor Hades, having hanged herself for grief, he also was mad and the avenging spirits haunted him as for an outraged mother- to his ruing bitterly thereafter.
Macisteus went once to Thebes after the fall of Oedipus, to attend his funeral, and he beat all the people of Cadmus.
Hesiod
The poet Hesiod wrote on the Sphinx in Thebes, but with no reference to Oedipus.
Echidna was subject in love to Orthus and brought forth the deadly Sphinx which destroyed the Cadmeans
Unrelated to the Sphinx, Hesiod is the first to poetically call an old man "three-legged", which then becomes part of the Sphinx's riddle.
Cinaethon
The poet Cinaethon of Sparta wrote an epic called the The Story of Oedipus (also called Oedipodea). Though it did not survive, a few scattered commentaries on the epic did. The story seems to tell of a merged Oedipus and Sphinx story, but details are unclear.
The authors of the "Story of Oedipus" (say) of the Sphinx: But furthermore (she killed) noble Haemon, the dear son of blameless Creon, the comeliest and loveliest of boys.
Judging by Homer, I do not believe that Oedipus had children by Jocasta: his sons were born of Euryganeia as the writer of the Epic called the "Story of Oedipus" clearly shows.
Curse of warring sons
An unknown author wrote the Thebaid, of which only fragments exist. It first tells of a curse on Oedipus' sons and how they will kill each other.
Then the hell-born hero, golden-haired Polyneices, first played beside Oedipus a rich table of silver which once belonged to Cadmus the divinely wise: next he filled a fine golden cup with sweet wine. But when Oedipus perceived these treasures of his father, great misery fell on his heart, and he straight-way called down bitter curses there in the presence of both his sons. And the avenging Fury of the gods failed not to hear him as he prayed that they might never divide their father's goods in loving brotherhood, but that war and fighting might be ever the portion of them both.
And when Oedipus noticed the haunch he threw it on the ground and said: "Oh! Oh! my sons have sent this mocking me ..." So he prayed to Zeus the king and the other deathless gods that each might fall by his brother's hand and go down into the house of Hades.
- Roman poet Publius Papinius Statius later wrote his analogous Thebaid, which has been preserved in its entirety.
5th century BC
Most writing on Oedipus comes from the 5th century BC, though the stories deal mostly with Oedipus' downfall. Various details appeared on how Oedipus rose to power.
Laius hears a prophecy that his son will kill him. Fearing the prophecy, Laius pierces Oedipus' feet and leaves him out to die, but a herdsman finds him and takes him away from Thebes. Oedipus, not knowing he was adopted, leaves home in fear of the same prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Laius, meanwhile, ventures out to find a solution to the Sphinx's riddle. As prophesied, Oedipus crossed paths with Laius and this leads to a fight where Oedipus slays Laius. Oedipus then defeats the Sphinx by solving a mysterious riddle to become king. He marries the widow queen Jocasta not knowing it is his mother. A plague falls on the people of Thebes. Upon discovery of the truth, Oedipus blinds himself and Jocasta hangs herself. After Oedipus is no longer king, Oedipus' sons kill each other.
Some differences with older stories emerge. The curse of the Oedipus' sons is expanded backward to include Oedipus and his father, Laius. Oedipus now steps down from the throne instead of dying in battle. Additionally, rather than his children being by a second wife, Oedipus' children are now by Jocasta.
Pindar's Second Olympian Ode
In the Second Olympians Ode Pindar wrote:
Laius' tragic son, crossing his father's path, killed him and fulfilled the oracle spoken of old at Pytho. And sharp-eyed Erinys saw and slew his warlike children at each other's hands. Yet Thersandros survived fallen Polyneikes and won honor in youthful contests and the brunt of war, a scion of aid to the house of Adrastos..
Aeschylus' Oedipus trilogy
In 467 BCE the Athenian playwright, Aeschylus, is known to have presented an entire trilogy based upon the Oedipus myth, winning the first prize at the City Dionysia. The First play was Laius, the second was Oedipus, and the third was Seven against Thebes. Only the third play survives, in which Oedipus' sons Eteocles and Polynices kill each other warring over the throne. Much like his Oresteia, this trilogy would have detailed the tribulations of a House over three successive generations. The satyr play that followed the trilogy was called the Sphinx.
Sophocles' Oedipus the King
As Sophocles' Oedipus the King begins, the people of Thebes are begging the king for help, begging him to discover the cause of the plague. Oedipus stands before them and swears to find the root of their suffering and to end it. Just then, Creon returns to Thebes from a visit to the oracle. Apollo has made it known that Thebes is harboring a terrible abomination and that the plague will only be lifted when the true murderer of old King Laius is discovered and punished for his crime. Oedipus swears to do this, not realizing of course that he himself is the abomination that he has sworn to exorcise. The stark truth emerges slowly over the course of the play, as Oedipus clashes with the blind seer Tiresias, who senses the truth. Oedipus remains in strict denial, though, becoming convinced that Tiresias is somehow plotting with Creon to usurp the throne.
Realization begins to slowly dawn in Scene II of the play when Jocasta mentions out of hand that Laius was slain at a place where three roads meet. This stirs something in Oedipus' memory and he suddenly remembers the men that he fought and killed one day long ago at a place where three roads met. He realizes, horrified, that he might be the man he's seeking. One household servant survived the attack and now lives out his old age in a frontier district of Thebes. Oedipus sends immediately for the man to either confirm or deny his guilt. At the very worst, though, he expects to find himself to be the unsuspecting murder of a man unknown to him. The truth has not yet been made clear.
The moment of epiphany comes late in the play. At the beginning of Scene III, Oedipus is still waiting for the servant to be brought into the city, when a messenger arrives from Corinth to declare the King Polybos is dead. Oedipus, when he hears this news is overwhelmed with relief, because he believed that Polybos was the father whom the oracle had destined him to murder, and he momentarily believes himself to have escaped fate. He tells this all to the present company, including the messenger, but the messenger knows that it is not true. He is the man who found Oedipus as a baby in the pass of Kithairon and gave him to King Polybos to raise. He reveals, furthermore that the servant who is being brought to the city as they speak is the very same man who took Oedipus up into the mountains as a baby. Jocasta realizes now all that has happened. She begs Oedipus not to pursue the matter further. He refuses, and she withdraws into the palace as the servant is arriving. The old man arrives, and it is clear at once that he knows everything. At the behest of Oedipus, he tells it all.
Overwhelmed with the knowledge of all his crimes, Oedipus rushes into the palace, where he finds his mother, his wife, dead by her own hand. Ripping a brooch from her dress, Oedipus blinds himself with it. Bleeding from the eyes, he begs Creon, who has just arrived on the scene, to exile him forever from Thebes. Creon agrees to this request, Oedipus begs to hold his two daughters Antigone and Ismene with his hands one more time to have their fill of tears and Creon out of pity sends the girls in to see Oedipus one more time.
Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus
In Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus becomes a wanderer, pursued by Creon and his men. He finally finds refuge at the holy wilderness right outside of Athens, where it is said that Theseus took care of him and his daughter, Antigone. Creon eventually catches up to Oedipus. He asks Oedipus to come back from Colonus to bless his son, Eteocles. Angry that his son did not care for him enough to take care of him, he curses both Eteocles and brother, condemning to sudden deaths. He died a peaceful death and his grave is said to be sacred to the gods.
Sophocles' Antigone
In Sophocles' Antigone, when Oedipus stepped down as King of Thebes he gave the kingdom to his two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, who both agreed to alternate the throne every year. However, they showed no concern for their father, who cursed them for their negligence. After the first year, Eteocles refused to step down and Polynices attacked Thebes with his supporters (as portrayed in the Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus and the Phoenician Women by Euripides). Both brothers died in the battle. King Creon, who ascended to the throne of Thebes, decreed that Polynices was not to be buried. Antigone, his sister, defied the order, but was caught. Creon decreed that she was to be put into a stone box in the ground, this in spite of her betrothal to his son Haemon. Antigone's sister, Ismene, then declared she had aided Antigone and wanted the same fate. The gods, through the blind prophet Tiresias, expressed their disapproval of Creon's decision, which convinced him to rescind his order, and he went to bury Polynices himself. However, Antigone had already hanged herself rather than be buried alive. When Creon arrived at the tomb where she was to be interred, Haemon attacked him and then killed himself. When Creon's wife, Eurydice, was informed of their deaths, she too took her own life.
Euripides' Phoenissae and Chrysippus
In the beginning of Euripides' Phoenissae, Jocasta recalls the story of Oedipus. Generally, the play weaves together the plots of the Seven Against Thebes and Antigone. The play differs from the other tales in two major respects. First, it describes in detail why Laius and Oedipus had a feud: Laius ordered Oedipus out of the road so his chariot could pass, but proud Oedipus refused to move. Second, in the play Jocasta has not killed herself at the discovery of her incest - otherwise she could not play the prologue, for fathomable reasons - nor has Oedipus fled into exile, but they have stayed in Thebes only to delay their doom until the fatal duel of their sons/brothers/nephews Eteocles and Polynices: Jocasta commits suicide over the two men's dead bodies, and Antigone follows Oedipus into exile.
In Chrysippus, Euripides develops backstory on the curse: Laius' "sin" was to have kidnapped Chrysippus, Pelops' son, in order to violate him, and this caused the gods' revenge on all his family - boy-loving having been so far an exclusive of the gods themselves, unknown to mortals.
Euripides wrote also an "Oedipus", of which only a few fragments survive.
The first line of the prologue recalled Laius' hybristic action of conceiving a son against Apollo's command. At some point in the action of the play, a character engaged in a lengthy and detailed description of the Sphinx and her riddle - preserved in five fragments from Oxyrhynchus, P.Oxy. 2459 (published by Eric Gardner Turner in 1962). The tragedy featured also many moral maxims on the theme of marriage, preserved in the Anthologion of Stobaeus. The most striking lines, however, state that in this play Oedipus was blinded by Laius' attendants, and that this happened before his identity as Laius' son had been discovered, therefore marking important differences with the Sophoclean treatment of the myth, which is now regarded as the 'standard' version. Many attempts have been made to reconstruct the plot of the play, but none of them is more than hypothetical, because of the scanty remains that survive from its text and of the total absence of ancient descriptions or résumés - though it has been suggested that a part of Hyginus' narration of the Oedipus myth might in fact derive from Euripides' play. Some echoes of the Euripidean Oedipus have been traced also in a scene of Seneca's Oedipus (see below), in which Oedipus himself describes to Jocasta his adventure with the Sphinx.
Later additions
In the 2nd century B.C.E., Apollodorus writes down an actual riddle for the Sphinx while borrowing the poetry of Hesiod:
What is that which has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed?
Later Addition to Aeschylus' Seven against Thebes
Due to the popularity of Sophocles's Antigone (ca. 442 BCE), the ending (lines 1005-78) of Seven against Thebes was added some fifty years after Aeschylus' death. Whereas the play (and the trilogy of which it is the last play) was meant to end with somber mourning for the dead brothers, the spurious ending features a herald announcing the prohibition against burying Polyneices, and Antigone's declaration that she will defy that edict
Oedipus in classical Latin literature
Oedipus was a figure who was also used in the Latin literature of ancient Rome.
Julius Caesar wrote a play on Oedipus, but it has not survived into modern times.
Ovid included Oedipus in Metamorphoses, but only as the person who defeated the Sphinx. He makes no mention of Oedipus' troubled experiences with his father and mother.
Seneca the Younger wrote his own play on the story of Oedipus in the first century CE. It differs in significant ways from the work of Sophocles. The play was intended to be recited at private gatherings and not actually performed. It has however been successfully staged since the Renaissance. It was adapted by John Dryden in his very successful heroic drama Oedipus, licensed in 1678.
Oedipus or Oedipais?
It has been suggested by some that in the earliest Ur-myth of the hero, he was called Oedipais: "child of the swollen sea." He was so named because of the method by which his birth parents tried to abandon him -- by placing him in a chest and tossing it into the ocean. The mythic topos of foresaking a child to the sea or a river is well attested, found (e.g.) in the myths of Perseus, Telephus, Dionysus, Moses, and Romulus and Remus. Over the centuries, however, Oedipais seems to have been corrupted into the familiar Oedipus: "swollen foot." And it was this new name that might have inspired the addition of a bizarre element to the story of Oedipus' abandonment on Mt. Cithaeron. Exposure on a mountain was in fact a common method of child abandonment in Ancient Greece. The binding of baby Oedipus' ankles, however, is unique; it can thus be argued that the ankle-binding was inelegantly grafted onto the Oedipus myth simply to explain his new name.
The Oedipus complex
Sigmund Freud used the name The Oedipus complex to explain the origin of certain neuroses in childhood. It is defined as a male child's unconscious desire for the exclusive love of his mother. This desire includes jealousy towards the father and the unconscious wish for that parent's death. Oedipus himself, as portrayed in the myth, did not suffer from this neurosis – at least, not towards Jocasta, whom he only met as an adult. (If anything, such feelings would have been directed at Merope – but there is no hint of that.) However, Freud reasoned that the ancient Greek audience, which heard the story told or saw the plays based on it, did know that Oedipus was actually killing his father and marrying his mother; the story being continually told and played therefore reflected a preoccupation with the theme. However, the title of this complex has nothing to do with the ancient play itself, it is, in fact, a misinterpretation of the play.
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