Creon, brother to King Oedipus, seeks advice from Delphi the oracle about plagues that are wreaking havoc across his kingdom. The oracle tells him that it is due to a curse that Oedipus has brought upon the land because the former king's murder, Laius', has never been solved. Tiresias is another prophet who is blind and knows something, but refuses to tell Oedipus and begs him to stop asking questions. Eventually Oedipus accuses Creon of bribing Tiresias to say it is because Oedipus murdered Laius. Oedipus has no recollection of killing any kings and assumes Tiresias is lying to him.

King Laius was married to Jocasta. Jocasta and Laius receive a prophecy that their son will kill Laius. Jacosta gives baby Oedipus to a shepherd so that the son will never meet the father. In other versions, Laius orders all of the firstborn sons slaughtered, and Jocasta sends her baby Oedipus away, and in other versions baby Oedipus is sent away with a soldier to be killed, but the soldier does not go through with it. In either version, Oedipus is raised by another father and grows up to be a mighty adventurer. In the meantime, King laius has no heir, so he decrees whoever solves the riddle of the sphinx gets the crown. On the road one day, Oedipus is almost run over by a carriage. In all the various accounts, the occupant of the carriage turns out to be King Laius, and Oedipus kills him without ever knowing Laius' identity.

Oedipus goes on to solve the Riddle of the Sphinx, “What has four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening?” Because of a decree, he becomes the king of Thebes and marries the widowed queen Jocasta. Doing the math, Jocasta may only be thirteen to fifteen years older than Oedipus if he was her first child. Jocasta is supposed to be extremely hot, so it is no more far fetched than a younger man marrying a modern day hot-female-actor, singer, dancer, etc.

After accusing his brother Creon of bribing Thesias, Jocasta tells him prophecies can be circumvented, describes what happened to Laius' and her first child, and that bandits killed the Laius on the road. At that point Oedipus knows he was the bandits, he killed his bio-father, Laius, and he has been having sex with his own mother. At which point Jocasta hangs herself and Oedipus takes the ahir pins from her dead body and gouges his own eyes out.

Sigmund Freud made this story famous when he used it as an analogy for men's sexual desires and identity. In a nutshell, Freud is using it to show how many young men rebel against their fathers and want to marry someone like their mothers.

Oedipus Relevance