Oedipus
The tragic king of Thebes who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother, fulfilling a prophecy he had spent his life trying to avoid.
The Legend of Oedipus
Born to King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes, Oedipus was exposed on Mount Cithaeron after Apollo's oracle at Delphi foretold he would kill his father and marry his mother. Shepherds saved him, and he was raised in Corinth by King Polybus. Fleeing the same prophecy, he killed Laius at a crossroads, solved the riddle of the Sphinx at Thebes, and won Jocasta's hand. When plague struck, Tiresias revealed the truth. Jocasta hanged herself; Oedipus blinded himself and wandered in exile. His children — Antigone, Polynices, Eteocles — inherited the curse. Zeus's will and Apollo's prophecy were inescapable.
Parents
Laius and Jocasta
Symbols
Fun Fact
Freud's "Oedipus complex" — unconscious desire for the opposite-sex parent — is one of the most famous applications of Greek myth to modern psychology.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Laius
🗡 heroNone recorded
King of Thebes whose attempt to cheat fate led directly to the Oedipus tragedy
Jocasta
🗡 heroNone recorded
Queen of Thebes who unknowingly married her own son Oedipus after his return
Amphiaraus
🗡 heroThe prophet who foresaw his own death at Thebes
A warrior-prophet who knew the Seven Against Thebes would fail but marched to his death anyway, swallowed by the earth.
Creon
🗡 heroNone recorded
King of Thebes who ruled after Oedipus and decreed death for Antigone
Menoeceus
🗡 herosacrifice, prophecy
A young Theban nobleman who sacrificed himself by leaping from the city walls to fulfil Tiresias's prophecy that only royal blood could save Thebes from the Seven.
Althaemenes
🗡 heroFate, exile
Cretan prince who fled to Rhodes to avoid a prophecy that he would kill his father, only to fulfil it
Perseus
🗡 heroHero who slew Medusa
The son of Zeus and Danae who beheaded Medusa, rescued Andromeda, and founded the Perseid dynasty of Mycenae.
Eurystheus
🗡 herofate
King of Mycenae who assigned Heracles his twelve labours, born prematurely through Hera's manipulation to gain power over the demigod.
Aleus
🗡 heroKingship, Arcadia
King of Tegea in Arcadia and founder of the great temple of Athena Alea
Mopsus
🗡 heroprophecy
Son of Manto and grandson of Tiresias who defeated the great seer Calchas in a divination contest, causing Calchas to die.
Phineus
🗡 heroprophecy, punishment
A blind Thracian king and prophet punished by Zeus for revealing divine secrets, tormented by Harpies until rescued by the Argonauts.
Chrysippus
🗡 heroNone recorded
A son of Pelops whose abduction by Laius of Thebes brought a curse upon the house of Laius and introduced the theme of transgression that haunted the Oedipus cycle