Oedipus Cycle

The Oedipus Cycle encompasses one of the darkest and most psychologically penetrating narrative sequences in Greek mythology.‍​‌​‍​‍​‍​‌​‍​‍​‌​‌​‍​‌​‍​‌​‌​‍​‌​‌​‌​‍​‍​‍​‌​‌​‌​‍​‍​‍​‌​‍​‍​‍ Before Oedipus was born, an oracle warned his father, King Laius of Thebes, that his son would kill him. Laius ordered the infant exposed on Mount Cithaeron with his ankles pierced and bound — hence the name Oedipus, "Swollen Foot." But the shepherd entrusted with the task took pity and passed the child to a Corinthian herdsman, and Oedipus was raised as the son of King Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth. When Oedipus learned from the Delphic Oracle that he was fated to kill his father and marry his mother, he fled Corinth, believing Polybus was his father. On the road to Thebes, he encountered Laius at a crossroads and killed him in a quarrel — unknowingly fulfilling the first half of the prophecy. At Thebes, Oedipus solved the riddle of the Sphinx ("What walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening?"), liberating the city and winning the hand of Queen Jocasta — his own mother. They ruled together for years and had four children: Eteocles, Polynices, Antigone, and Ismene. When a plague struck Thebes, Oedipus investigated its divine cause, only to discover the horrifying truth of his own identity. Jocasta hanged herself. Oedipus gouged out his eyes and went into exile, guided by his daughter Antigone. He died at Colonus near Athens, where the earth swallowed him and his grave became a sacred protective site. The curse continued through his children: his sons killed each other fighting for Thebes, and Antigone was entombed alive for defying Creon's edict against burying Polynices. Sophocles dramatised this cycle in three surviving tragedies that remain cornerstones of Western literature.