Laius
In
Greek mythology, King
Laius, or
Laios of
Thebes was a divine hero and key personage in the Theban founding myth. Son of
Labdacus, he was raised by the regent
Lycus after the death of his father.
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Laius abducting Chrysippus, who is reaching out to Pelops, his father (detail). Volute crater, ca. 320 BCE. The Getty, Malibu, California. |
While Laius was still young,
Amphion and Zethus usurped the throne of Thebes. Some Thebans, wishing to see the line of
Cadmus continue, smuggled Laius out of the city before their attack, in which they killed Lycus and took the throne.
[Pausanius, Description of Greece, 9.5.6] Laius was welcomed by
Pelops, king of
Pisa in the
Peloponnesus.
[Apollodorus, Library, 9.5.5] Laius become infatuated with the king's son,
Chrysippus, and carried him off to Thebes while teaching him how to drive a chariot, or as
Hyginus records it, during the
Nemean games. This abduction was the subject of one of the lost tragedies of
Euripides. With both Amphion and Zethus having died in his absence, Laius became king of Thebes upon his return.
After the rape of Chrysippus, Laius married
Jocasta or
Epicasta, the daughter of
Menoceceus, a descendant of the
Spartoi. Laius received an
oracle from
Delphi which told him that he must not have a child with his wife, or the child would kill him. One night, however, Laius was drunk and fathered
Oedipus with her. Laius ordered the baby, Oedipus, to have his feet pierced and to be exposed on
Mount Cithaeron, but he was taken by a shepherd and given to King
Polybus and Queen
Merope (or
Periboea) of
Corinth who raised him to adulthood.
[Apollodorus, Library, 3.5.7]When Oedipus desired to know more about his parentage, he consulted the Delphic Oracle, only to be told that he must not go to his home or he would kill his father and marry his mother. Thinking that he was from Corinth, he set out toward Thebes to avoid this fate.
[Apollodorus, Library, 3.5.7] At the road called 'Cleft Way,' he met Laius, who was going to Delphi to consult the oracle because he had received omens indicating that his son might return to kill him.
[Tripp, Edward. Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology. New York: Thomas Crowell Company, 1970, p.337] Oedipus refused to defer to the king, although Laius's attendants ordered him to. Being angered, Laius either rolled a chariot wheel over his foot or hit him with his whip, and Oedipus killed Laius and all but one of his attendants. Laius was buried where he died by
Damasistratus, the king of
Plataea.
[Tripp, Edward. Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology. New York: Thomas Crowell Company, 1970, p.337]Many of Laius's descendants met with ill fortune, but whether this was because he violated the laws of hospitality and marriage by carrying off his host's child, or because he ignored the oracle's warning not to have children, or some combination of these, is not clear.
| The Laius myth as told by story tellers |
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| 1. Laius and Chrysippus, read by Timothy Carter |
| Bibliography of reconstruction: Pindar, Olympian Ode, I (476 BCE); Apollodorus Library and Epitome 3.5.5 (140 BCE); Hyginus, Fables, 85. Chrysippus; 243. Women who Committed Suicide (1st c. CE); Pausanias, Description of Greece, 9.5.5-10, 6.20.7 (c. 160 - 176 CE); Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists, Book XIII, 602 (c. 200 CE); Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks, ii, 34, 3 - 5 (150 - 215 CE) |
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Story of Laius and Chrysippus
