Oedipus Prophecy
conceptThe Delphic prophecy that Oedipus would kill his father Laius and marry his mother Jocasta, which every attempt to prevent only fulfilled.
The Myth
The Oedipus prophecy was first delivered to Laius, king of Thebes, who learned from Apollo's oracle at Delphi that his son would kill him. Laius ordered the infant exposed on Mount Cithaeron with pierced ankles — hence the name Oedipus, "swollen foot." A shepherd of Polybus, king of Corinth, rescued the child. Years later, Oedipus himself consulted Delphi and received the same prophecy. Fleeing Corinth to escape what he believed were his true parents, he encountered Laius at a crossroads near Phocis and killed him in a dispute over right of way. Arriving at Thebes, he solved the riddle of the Sphinx — a creature sent by Hera — freeing the city and winning the hand of Queen Jocasta. When plague struck Thebes, the oracle declared it would end only when Laius's killer was found. Tiresias the blind prophet revealed the truth that Oedipus had been pursuing himself all along.
Symbols
Fun Fact
Freud named his most famous concept — the Oedipus complex — after this myth in 1899, making Oedipus the most psychoanalysed character in literary history. The idea that we are unknowingly driven toward the very fate we flee became foundational to modern psychology. Every therapy session that explores unconscious motivation is operating in territory Sophocles mapped in 429 BC, 2,300 years before Freud put a clinical name on it.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth:
Explore Further
Oedipus
heroThe tragic king of Thebes who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother, fulfilling a...
Apollo Loxias
godAn epithet of Apollo meaning "the Oblique One," referring to the deliberately ambiguous nature of...
Sphinx
creatureA creature with the body of a lion, wings of an eagle, and head of a woman. The Sphinx terrorized...
Sphinx (Egyptian-Greek)
creatureThe Sphinx combined Egyptian monumental sculpture with Greek narrative — in Egypt a guardian, in...
Sphinx (Riddle)
creatureThe Sphinx's riddle — "What walks on four legs, two legs, then three?" — is the most famous riddle...
Sphinx (Theban)
creatureThe Greek Sphinx was a winged monster with the head of a woman and the body of a lion who posed a...
Thebes
placeThebes was the great city of Boeotia, founded by Cadmus who sowed dragon teeth, and the setting for...
Thebes (Boeotia)
placeThe city of Cadmus and Oedipus, setting of more Greek tragedies than any other place.
Tiresias
heroThe most famous seer in Greek mythology, blinded by the gods but given the gift of prophecy in...
Aporia
conceptA state of philosophical puzzlement where contradictory arguments seem equally strong.
Delphic Maxims
conceptThe 147 moral precepts inscribed at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, including the famous "Know...
Aletheia
conceptTruth understood as unconcealment — the revealing of what was hidden.