Oedipus: The King Who Could Not Outrun Prophecy

Before Oedipus could walk, he was marked by fate. Laius and Jocasta, the king and queen of Thebes, had consulted the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi and received a terrible answer: any son born to Laius would kill him. When Jocasta bore a boy, Laius had the infant's ankles pierced and bound together, then ordered him abandoned on a mountainside to die of exposure — a fate that gave the child his name, Oedipus, 'swollen foot.'

The servant entrusted with this grim task could not bring himself to finish it. He passed the baby to a shepherd from Corinth, who in turn gave him to another shepherd. Eventually Oedipus came into the hands of Polybus and Merope, the childless king and queen of Corinth, who raised him as their own son, never revealing his true origins.

Years later, a drunken man at a feast called Oedipus a bastard. Shaken, Oedipus confronted Polybus and Merope, who denied everything, but doubt lingered. He traveled to the Oracle at Delphi to learn the truth of his birth. Instead, he received a prophecy of horror: he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Determined to escape this fate, he resolved never to return to Corinth — the only home he knew — and set out instead toward Thebes.

On the road, at a crossroads near Daulia, Oedipus encountered a chariot carrying an older man he did not recognize. A dispute erupted over right of way, and in the ensuing fight, Oedipus killed the stranger — who was, unknown to him, his true father, King Laius. A single witness fled the scene, and Oedipus continued onward, unaware of what he had done.

Thebes was under siege by the Sphinx, a monster that posed a riddle to every traveler and devoured those who failed to answer. The riddle: what walks on four feet in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three at night? Oedipus answered correctly — man, who crawls as an infant, walks upright as an adult, and leans on a cane in old age. The Sphinx's defeat won Oedipus the vacant throne of Thebes and the hand of its widowed queen, Jocasta — his own mother, though neither knew it. Their marriage produced four children: sons Eteocles and Polynices, and daughters Antigone and Ismene.