Oedipus was the king of Thebes who, according to the most famous of Greek myths, killed his father and married his mother. The story of Oedipus is told in the Oedipus Rex of Sophocles, one of the most influential plays in the history of Western literature, and in the Oedipus at Colonus, a later play by the same author. The story of Oedipus has been used by philosophers, psychologists, and literary critics to explore themes of fate, free will, the limits of human knowledge, and the consequences of trying to escape one’s destiny. The Oedipus complex, the psychoanalytic concept developed by Sigmund Freud, is named for this myth.
The Prophecy of Oedipus
Oedipus was the son of King Laius of Thebes and Queen Jocasta. Before Oedipus was born, Laius received a prophecy from the Oracle at Delphi that he would be killed by his own son. To prevent this, Laius had the infant Oedipus exposed on a mountainside, with his feet pinned together.
The infant was found by a shepherd, who took him to King Polybus of Corinth and Queen Merope. The king and queen, who had no children of their own, raised Oedipus as their own son. Oedipus grew up believing that Polybus and Merope were his real parents.
The Departure from Corinth
When Oedipus reached adulthood, he heard a rumor that he was not the true son of Polybus and Merope. He went to the Oracle at Delphi to ask about his parentage. The Oracle did not answer his question directly, but it told him that he would kill his father and marry his mother.
Horrified, Oedipus decided to leave Corinth, so that the prophecy could not be fulfilled. He traveled away from Corinth, toward Thebes.
The Killing of Laius
At a crossroads on the way to Thebes, Oedipus met an old man in a chariot, who ordered him out of the way. A scuffle ensued, and Oedipus killed the old man and all his servants, except one who escaped.
The old man was King Laius of Thebes, the true father of Oedipus. The prophecy was already being fulfilled, but Oedipus did not yet know it.
The Riddle of the Sphinx
Oedipus continued on to Thebes, which was in the grip of a terrible crisis. The Sphinx, a riddling creature sent by Hera to punish the city, was sitting on a rock outside the city, asking a riddle of every traveler who passed. Those who failed to answer were devoured.
Oedipus met the Sphinx, who asked him her riddle: “What walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening?” Oedipus answered correctly: “Man.” He explained: “Man walks on four legs in the morning, when he is a baby and crawls on all fours; on two at noon, when he is an adult and walks upright; and on three in the evening, when he is old and uses a cane.”
The Sphinx, defeated, threw herself from the rock and died. Thebes was saved.
The Marriage to Jocasta
As a reward for solving the riddle, Oedipus was given the kingdom of Thebes and the hand of the queen, Jocasta, the widow of King Laius. The marriage fulfilled the second part of the prophecy, but Oedipus did not yet know it.
Oedipus and Jocasta had four children: two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, and two daughters, Antigone and Ismene. Oedipus ruled Thebes wisely and well, and the city prospered under his reign.
The Plague of Thebes
Years later, a terrible plague struck Thebes. The crops failed, the livestock died, and the women could not bear children. The people of Thebes asked Oedipus to find a solution.
Oedipus sent his brother-in-law, Creon, to the Oracle at Delphi to ask what should be done. The Oracle replied that the plague would end only when the murderer of King Laius was found and punished. Oedipus vowed to find the murderer, and he called upon the blind prophet Tiresias to help.
Tiresias, after some hesitation, revealed that Oedipus himself was the murderer of Laius. Oedipus, horrified, refused to believe it, but the evidence began to mount. The shepherd who had found Oedipus as a baby was found, and he revealed that Oedipus was the son of Laius and Jocasta, not the son of Polybus and Merope of Corinth.
The Tragic Discovery
Jocasta, who had begun to suspect the truth, hanged herself. Oedipus, in his grief and horror, took the pins from her dress and blinded himself with them. He was then exiled from Thebes, accompanied by his daughter Antigone, who served as his guide.
The blind Oedipus wandered from place to place, begging for food, until he finally reached the town of Colonus, near Athens, where the god Athena had a sacred grove. There, according to the Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus was mysteriously received by the gods, who took him to a place of honor in the underworld.
The Oedipus Complex
The Oedipus complex is a psychoanalytic concept developed by Sigmund Freud in his 1899 book The Interpretation of Dreams. Freud argued that the Oedipus Rex of Sophocles expressed the universal unconscious desire of a child for the parent of the opposite sex and the rivalry with the parent of the same sex. He called this the “Oedipus complex,” after the Greek myth.
The Oedipus complex has been a central concept in psychoanalysis, and it has influenced fields as diverse as literary criticism, gender studies, and political theory. The concept has also been criticized, particularly by feminist scholars, who have argued that the Oedipus complex reflects Freud’s own assumptions about gender and family rather than universal human experience.
The Cultural Legacy of Oedipus
The story of Oedipus has been retold in countless works of literature, art, and film, including the Oedipus Rex of Sophocles, the Oedipus at Colonus of Sophocles, the Antigone of Sophocles, the Seven Against Thebes of Aeschylus, the Phoenician Women of Euripides, the Oedipus of Seneca, the Long Day’s Journey into Night of Eugene O’Neill, the Mourning Becomes Electra of Eugene O’Neill, the Oedipus of André Gide, and many more.
The story has also been the subject of numerous films, including the 1957 film Oedipus Rex (directed by Philip Stapp), the 1968 film Oedipus the King (directed by Philip Saville), and the 2004 film Troy (in which the character of Oedipus is briefly mentioned). The myth of Oedipus has been interpreted by philosophers including Aristotle, Hegel, and Nietzsche, and by psychoanalysts including Freud, Jung, and Lacan.
The Oedipus myth remains one of the most powerful and most influential stories in Western culture, a paradigmatic case of the human struggle against fate, the limits of self-knowledge, and the terrible consequences of trying to escape one’s destiny.
For more on the mythological context, see our profile of the Sphinx, our guide to the Greek heroes, and our profile of Jocasta. For more on the cultural legacy, see our guide to Greek mythology in psychology.