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The Times of Oedipus
(for the times before him see Thebes)

Oedipus' birth

When Laius ₁, having become king of Thebes, married Jocasta, daughter of Menoeceus ₁, an oracle came from Delphi warning him not to have a son because that son was fated to kill his own father. But Laius ₁, who did not share his predecessors' aversion to wine, disregarded the oracle, and flushed with the divine beverage, had intercourse with his wife, who conceived a son.

Oedipus abandoned and adopted

When the child was born, however, Laius ₁ remembered the oracle, and being determined to get rid of his newborn son, pierced his ankles with brooches or spikes before he gave him to a herdsman to expose him on Cithaeron, a mountain between Boeotia and Attica. There the horsemen of King Polybus ₄ of Corinth found the child and brought him to the city, where the king's wife Periboea ₄, after healing his ankles, adopted him and called him Oedipus, because of his swollen feet.

Oedipus in Corinth

This is how Oedipus came to manhood in the court of King Polybus ₄, and as he proved to be a corageous young man, his companions taunted him, out of envy, with not being the king's son because, they said, King Polybus ₄ was so mild and Oedipus so assertive. So as the doubt grew in Oedipus' mind, he asked first Queen Periboea ₄, but not being able to learn anything from her, he went to Delphi in order to inquire of the oracle about his true parents. The Oracle answered him not to go back to his native land because, if he did, he would murder his father and lie with his mother. Having heard the prophecy, Oedipus left Delphi resolved to obey it, but believing himself to be the son of the royal couple who had adopted him, he did not return to Corinth.

First part of the oracle fulfilled

When on his way from Delphi, Oedipus drove his chariot in a certain narrow road—some say through the Cleft Road to Phocis—, he met Laius ₁, who was on his own way to Delphi to inquire about some prodigies that had revealed that death at his son's hands was near, and to be reassured that the child he had exposed was dead. When they met in the narrow road, the king's herald Polyphontes ₁ ordered Oedipus to give way; but as Oedipus delayed, the herald killed one of his horses, or as others say, the king urged on his own horses and a wheel grazed Oedipus' foot. In any case, the enraged Oedipus slew the herald, and dragging Laius ₁ from the chariot, killed him too.

The Sphinx

The Sphinx

After the burial of Laius ₁, performed by King Damasistratus of Plataea (a city between Attica and Boeotia), Jocasta's brother Creon ₂ became regent in Thebes. It is during his rule that a new and heavy calamity befell Thebes: the Sphinx appeared in Boeotia, laying waste the Theban fields and declaring that it would not depart unless someone interpreted the riddle that she proposed, and that, in the meantime, she would destroy whoever failed to give the correct answer. This beast— offspring of either Typhon or Orthus by Echidna—had the face of a woman, the breast, feet and tail of a lion, and the wings of a bird. She had learned her riddle from the MUSES, and sitting on Mount Phicium, propounded it to any Theban willing to solve it:

"What is that which has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed?" (Apollodorus, Library 3.5.7).

In order to face the threat, Creon ₂ made a proclamation throughout Hellas, promising that he would give the kingdom of Thebes along with his sister Jocasta in marriage to the person solving the riddle of the Sphinx. It was not difficult to find candidates; for when it comes to acquiring power, property, and women, there are always many disposed to go through no matter which risks and atrocities. Accordingly, many came and many were destroyed by the Sphinx, who gobbled them up one after the other.

Oedipus solves the riddle

After many men had perished, Oedipus heard the proclamation and came to Thebes, declaring that he had solved the riddle. So he went up, and meeting the Sphinx, he asserted that the riddle referred to man because as a little child he is four-footed, going on his arms and legs, as an adult he is two-footed, and as an old man he gets a third limb in a staff. This Oedipus knew only too well, who had his own feet mutilated, and already used a staff; but on hearing the solution, the Sphinx kept her promise and destroyed herself by throwing herself down from the citadel.

Oedipus questioned by the Sphinx | La Esfinge interroga a Edipo

Oedipus King

This is how, after having fulfilled the first part of the oracle by unwittingly killing his father, the way opened for him to fulfil the second part: Oedipus succeeded to the kingdom, and not knowing who she was, he married his own mother Jocasta, who in time gave him children: Polynices, Eteocles ₁, Ismene ₂, and Antigone ₂, his own offspring and yet his brothers and sisters.

Crisis persists

Some think that Heaven dislikes this kind of family configuration, and that because of it, barrenness of crops and hunger fell on Thebes, along with a plague that an oracle attributed to blood-guiltiness related to the death of Laius ₁.

The Seer's Panacea

The plague was worst, and in order to deliver the city, the seer Tiresias was consulted. He then replied that if anyone died voluntarily for his country, the city would be free from the pestilence. It was then that brave Menoeceus ₁—father of both Jocasta and Creon ₂, and a firm believer in seers and oracles indeed—, having heard Tiresias's pronouncement, threw himself from the walls of the city, and died.

Oedipus "exposed" anew

Despite Menoeceus ₁'s self-sacrifice, the troubles continued. For when King Polybus ₄ of Corinth, whom Oedipus believed to be his father, died, Queen Periboea ₄ decided that the time had come to reveal the circumstances around Oedipus' adoption. And since when one talks then everybody else talks, and evidences appear where there before was but silence or denials, the man who had exposed the child Oedipus—Menoetes ₄—came forth and recognized him by the scars on his feet and ankles as the son of Laius ₁. Also the seer Tiresias, who recommended the sacrifice of Creon ₂'s father, and who, on a later occasion advised the sacrifice of Creon ₂'s son, appears now to have known the truth from the very beginning:

"[Oedipus] will be discovered to be at once brother and father of the children … son and husband of the woman who bore him; heir to his father's bed, shedder of his father's blood." (Tiresias. Sophocles, Oedipus the King 455).

End of Oedipus' kingship

Having realized his plight, Oedipus tore the brooches from his mother's garment and blinded himself. He gave the kingdom for alternate years to his sons Polynices and Eteocles ₁, but he also cursed them and was forced by them to go into exile, being then accompanied by his daughter Antigone ₂.

It has also been told that before Oedipus went into exile, his sons hid him behind bars, hoping that the disgrace might be forgotten, and that while he still was living in the house, he made the most unholy curses against his sons, praying that they may divide their inheritance with a sharp sword. Since the brothers were scared by these curses, they agreed to alternate as kings, a deal they did not respect. And it is told that when Oedipus wished to leave Thebes he was not allowed to do so, but when he grew accustomed to stay at home, even as a prisoner, he was expelled. Jocasta, his mother and wife, committed suicide; according to some, she hanged herself in a noose, but others say that she killed herself with a sword.

After abdication

Oedipus' abdication did not lead to peace and prosperity in Thebes, but to the destruction that comes from civil war and foreign intervention. Oedipus' accursed sons did not respect their deal concerning the kingdom, and they indeed divided their inheritance by the sword. The treasures of Thebes were taken out of the city, and soon the Argive army of the SEVEN AGAINST THEBES attacked the ill-fated town. The SEVEN were defeated, and Creon ₂ came to power again after the death of Oedipus' sons. But ten years later, the sons of the SEVEN, known as the EPIGONI, captured Thebes.

Oedipus in exile

Oedipus took refuge at Colonus in Attica, where he prayed in the precinct of the EUMENIDES (ERINYES). There he was hospitably received by King Theseus of Athens. It was while he still was in Colonus that dissension grew between his sons in Thebes. The younger brother Eteocles ₁ banished Polynices, who being helped by King Adrastus ₁ of Argos, raised the army of the SEVEN. As war approached, an oracle became known which stated that victory would belong to those who had Oedipus for ally. So first came Creon ₂, on behalf of Eteocles ₁, to persuade Oedipus to return to Thebes, or if persuasion failed to take him back by force. Creon ₂ attempted to force Oedipus but was prevented by Theseus, who chose to champion the rights of asylum. Later arrived Polynices, promising his father to bring him back to Thebes and re-establish him if he would support his party. But Polynices, who previously had expelled his father from Thebes, received a renewed curse from Oedipus:

"That city you will never storm, but first will fall, you and your brother, blood-imbrued. Such curse I lately launched against you both, such curse I now invoke to fight for me (…) This curse I leave you as my last bequest: Never to win by arms your native land, nor return to Argos, but by a kinman's hand to die and slay." (Oedipus to Polynices. Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1385).

This curse came to be.

Death

Shortly after these encounters, Oedipus died at Colonus, his grave becoming a protection for Athens. Some say that he died of natural causes, others that he killed himself, and still others believe that he died in Thebes. But the sight of this disgraced old man and former king impressed the citizens of Colonus, who reflected thus:

"Not to be born at all is best, far best that can befall. Next best, when born, with least delay to trace the backward way. For when youth passes with its giddy train, troubles on troubles follow, toils on toils … Last comes the worst and most abhorred stage of unregarded age, joyless, companionless and slow, of woes the crowning woe." (Citizens of Colonus. Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1225).

Jocasta

Polynices

Some affirm that Jocasta, called sometimes Epicasta, never wedded her son, but that Oedipus married Eurygania, daughter of Hyperphas. They also assert that there are proofs of her grief (and therefore of her existence) because of the fight between her sons.

Polynices and Eteocles ₁ killed each other during the war of the SEVEN AGAINST THEBES, thus fulfilling Oedipus' curse.

Eteocles ₁

Ismene ₂

Ismene ₂ is said to have been killed by Tydeus ₂ while she was having sexual intercourse with Theoclymenus ₄ at the time of the war of the SEVEN.

Antigone ₂

Antigone ₂ died after the war of the SEVEN, when she insisted in burying her brother Polynices against the edict of Creon ₂.

Abolengo Album - High Resolution Genealogical Charts

Names in this chart

Adrastus ₁, Adrastus ₄, Aegeus ₂, Aeolus ₁, Agenor ₁, Amythaon ₁, Antigone ₂, Argia ₁, Autesion ₁, Belus ₁, Bias ₁, Cadmus, Creon ₂, Cretheus ₁, Deucalion ₁, Epaphus ₁, Eteocles ₁, Europas, Haemon ₁, Hellen ₁, Hyraeus, Io, Ismene ₂, Jocasta, Labdacus ₁, Laeas, Laius ₁, Laodamas ₂, Libya, Maeon ₁, Maesis, Menoeceus ₁, Nycteis, Nycteus ₂, Oedipus, Oeolycus, Polydorus ₂, Polynices, Talaus, Theras, Thersander ₁, Timeas, Tisamenus ₁.