Oedipus

(Swollen Foot) Greek Son of Laius, king of Thebes, and of Jocasta. Father of Polynices, Eteocles, Antigone, and Ismene. An oracle had warned King Laius that Oedipus would kill him, so Laius abandoned his infant son on a hillside (a fate common to many unwanted children in ancient times), having first pierced the child's feet and bound them together (hence the name Oedipus, meaning "Swollen Foot," or, some say "Clubfoot"). A shepherd rescued Oedipus and took him to the king of Corinth, who raised Oedipus. Years later another oracle told Oedipus, now a young man, that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Believing that his foster parents were his real parents, Oedipus fled from them. On his journey, he met Laius, his real father. The two had a skirmish at a crossroads and Oedipus killed Laius. In Thebes, Oedipus correctly answered a riddle set by the Sphinx and in so doing won the hand of Jocasta, whom he married not knowing she was his mother. Thus the oracles' prophecies were fulfilled. When Oedipus learned the truth about his parents and his relationships with them, he blinded himself in agony and was either killed in battle or exiled to Colonus in Attica, while his sons battled for the throne of Thebes (see Seven Against Thebes). His loving daughter, Antigone, guided Oedipus in his blind wanderings. Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides all wrote plays based on the story of Oedipus. The one by Sophocles, known as Oedipus Rex, has been called the greatest and most powerful of the Greek tragedies.