Oedipus
 |
Oedipus and the Sphinx, from an 1879 illustration from Stories from the Greek Tragedians by Alfred Church |
Oedipus was the mythical
king of
Thebes, son of
Laius and
Jocasta, who, unknowingly, killed his father and married his mother. Greek poets explain the name (Greek , transliterated directly as
Oidipous) as meaning "swollen-foot," but this is probably a pun rather than an etymology; historically the name is more likely to have come from two elements meaning "he who
knew (oid-) the
Sphinx' riddle of the
feet (-pous).
Laius, Oedipus' father, kidnapped and raped the young boy
Chrysippus and was then cursed by Chrysippus' father,
Pelops. The weight of this curse bore down onto Oedipus himself. At his birth, it was prophesied that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Seeking to avoid such a fate, Laius had the infant's ankles pierced with nails and had him exposed (placed in the wilderness to die). His servant, however, betrayed him, handing the boy instead to a shepherd who presented the child to King
Polybus and Queen
Merope (or
Periboea) of
Corinth, who raised him as their own son.
At a party thrown by King Polybus, a drunk guest called Oedipus a bastard. Seeking to confirm his parentage, not believing the man, Oedipus sought out the Oracle. Instead of telling him his parentage, the Oracle related the same prophecy as was told to his father; that he would kill his father and marry his mother. After descending the mountain, on the road to the oracle he met an unarmed man on his own pilgrimage, riding a chariot. The man in the chariot demanded that Oedipus stand aside so he could pass. They argued, and Oedipus killed the stranger. The man was King Laius, Oedipus' father.
Oedipus decided that the drunkard at the party was lying, and decided not to return to home in order to avoid Polybus. As he traveled, Oedipus encountered a mystical creature that was terrorizing Thebes. Oedipus saved the city by answering the
riddle of the
Sphinx ("What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?": Man, as a baby man crawls on four legs; as an adult, two legs; when old, man uses a cane.) and was rewarded with the now-vacant throne of Thebes and the widowed queen Jocasta's hand in marriage. In Sophocles' play,
Oedipus the King, Oedipus has four children with Jocasta, though this may have been a plot device he employed, as
incest was not part of the original myth.
Within a short time, divine signs of misfortune and pollution began to appear in Thebes, which caused the king to seek out their cause. Finally, the seer
Teiresias revealed to Oedipus that Oedipus himself was the source of the pollution. Oedipus discovered he was really the son of Laius and Jocasta and that the prophecy had indeed come to pass. Jocasta committed suicide and Oedipus blinded himself by forcing her brooch pins into his eyes.
It should be noted that the answer to the Sphinx's riddle applies to Oedipus more than any other man. As an infant with hobbled ankles, it is fair to assume he took much longer to learn to walk than normal. As a blind man in his old age, he required the use of a cane more than normal.
When Oedipus stepped down as King of Thebes, he gave the kingdom to his two sons,
Eteocles and
Polynices, who both agreed to alternate the throne every year. However, they showed no concern for their father, who cursed them for their negligence. After the first year, Eteocles refused to step down and Polynices attacked Thebes with his supporters (as portrayed in the
Seven Against Thebes by
Aeschylus and the
Phoenician Women by
Euripides). Both brothers died in the battle. King Creon, who ascended to the throne of Thebes, decreed that Polynices was not to be buried.
Antigone, his sister, defied the order, but was caught. Creon decreed that she was to be buried alive, this in spite of her betrothal to his son Haemon. Antigone's sister,
Ismene, then declared she had aided Antigone and wanted the same fate. The gods, through the blind prophet
Teiresias, expressed their disapproval of Creon's decision, which convinced him to rescind his order, and he went to bury Polynices himself. However, Antigone had already hanged herself rather than be buried alive. When Creon arrived at the tomb where she was to be interred, Haemon attacked him and then killed himself. When Creon's wife,
Eurydice, was informed of their deaths, she too took her own life.
This legend has inspired several works of art, such as
Sophocles' Oedipus trilogy, the so called
Three Theban plays (
Oedipus the King,
Oedipus at Colonus and
Antigone),
Max Ernst's Oedipus Rex,
Stravinsky's
opera Oedipus Rex and
Enescu's opera
Oédipe. It is also claimed by some that either Oedipus was the inspiration for tales of
Odin or Odin was inspiration for the tales of Oedipus; also said was that a mystery cult existed that both were members of, although these theories provoke skepticism. Also,
Frederich Nietzsche wrote his famous book
The Birth of Tragedy based on the Oedipus myth.
The story gave
Sigmund Freud the name for the
Oedipus complex, a primal desire on the part of a young child to completely possess the mother and kill the father (despite the fact that Oedipus actually tries to avoid this). Variants of the Oedipus complex have been posited by Austrian psychologist
Otto Rank and French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist
Jacques Lacan.
During the 20th Century, Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Woody Allen and Pier Paolo Pasolini each adapted the Oedipus myth for opera, stage, and cinema. There is a comic song by
Tom Lehrer which rhymes "Oedipus Rex" with "odd complex" and "Freud's index".
The Doors also reference the Freudian version in the song "The End." The legend also inspired Black Adder Production Studio's film "Complex," about a boy who falls in love with his mother due to trauma caused by his father's death.
Regina Spektor, a Russian pianist/songwriter, joyously sings about the story in her song "Oedipus."
In the late 20th Century, the writer Ian Dallas tackled the theme in a completely new way in his Oedipus and Dionysus (1991), reversing the original Greek sense of a man made wise by a doomed tragedy which he was unable to avoid, instead positing a life-affirming picture essential to which is a new vision of the importance of the couple.
In
2006 the musical parody
Oedipus for Kids came out.
*An episode of
Animaniacs is based on the story of Oedipus.
* The
Steven Berkoff play
Greek is a modern appropriation of the story of Oedipus.
* The German movie
Ödipussi (starring
Loriot) features a man who is still dependent on his mother even as a middle-aged man - until he falls in love.
*
Jason Wishnow created a
movie of the Oedipus story, performed by
vegetables, which has been screened at a number of film festivals, including the
Sundance Film Festival, where it received its world premier. The movie also features the voice of
Billy Dee Williams as the bartender.
* Oedipus makes a brief appearance in
History of the World, Part I. He is supposedly blind, yet he recognizes Josephus (
Gregory Hines), who calls him a "
motherfucker" in response. Josephus' use of the term is actually quite accurate, considering the story of Oedipus.
* The
Haruki Murakami novel
Kafka on the Shore features a protagonist with an oedipal prophecy, although the plot plays out much differently than the Greek story
* The humorous essay "Planes, Trains, and Plantains: The story of Oedipus" can be found
here.
Dallas, Ian,
Oedipus and Dionysus, Freiburg Press, Granada 1991. ISBN 1874216029.
*
Antigone*
Epigoni*
Oedipus the King*
Oedipus rex (opera)*
Oedipus complex*
Watu Gunung
