The Tragic Legend of Oedipus
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"No one knows that you are the scourge of your own blood, of the dead beneath the earth and of the living up here, and the double lash of your father’s and your mother’s curse will drive you from this world." Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
Immortalised by Sophocles and popularised by Freud through Psychoanalysis, the story of Oedipus is the most famous of the Greek tragedies.
Oedipus, son of King Laius of Thebes and Jocasta, had been abandoned shortly after the oracle prophesied that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Left to die, he was found and brought before King Polybus of Corinth, who had no children. Oedipus thus grew up without knowing his true origin, nor the prophecy that marked his destiny.
Upon leaving Delphi, Oedipus encountered King Laius and killed him, not knowing that Laius was his father. Laius had been on his way to the Oracle to ask how to free Thebes from the Sphinx, a monster that murdered its subjects when they could not solve the riddles it posed them.
After killing Laius, Oedipus marched toward Thebes and freed the city from the Sphinx:
"Guess this riddle," the Sphinx said to Oedipus, "or you will meet your death: What creature walks on four legs in the morning, on two at midday, and on three in the evening?" Oedipus looked at the Sphinx and answered: "Man. In his infancy he crawls on his hands and knees, which is like having four feet. When he is an adult he walks on two feet. And in the twilight of his life, when he is an old man, he uses a staff, which is equivalent to walking on three feet."
And so it was that Oedipus solved the riddle and managed to enrage the Sphinx so greatly that she threw herself into the ocean and drowned.
Oedipus was then proclaimed King and married Jocasta, not knowing that she was his mother.
Some time later, a plague broke out and the Oracle blamed the murderer of King Laius, whereupon Oedipus realised that it was he who had killed him.
Finally, Oedipus discovered the circumstances of his birth. Jocasta, horrified, took her own life, and Oedipus gouged out his own eyes.