How Can Someone Murder His Father and Marry His Mother… and Never Even Realize It??? The tragic story behind the tragedy of Oedipus the King
Once upon a time, Laius, the King of Thebes, married Jocasta, but an oracle warned them not to have a son, because that son was fated to kill his own father.
Laius, who wasn’t one for superstition, ignored the warning and soon Jocasta had a baby boy.
When the child was born, however, Laius remembered the oracle, and being determined to get rid of his newborn son, pierced his ankles with brooches or spikes before he gave him to a herdsman to desert him on mount Cithaeron.
A shepherd found the child and brought him to Corinth, where the king of Corinth’s wife, Periboea, after healing his ankles, adopted him and called him Oedipus, because of his swollen feet. I’ll Call him “Oedipus” which means “swollen foot!”
Oedipus grew up in the court of King Polybus, his adopted father, whom he assumed to be his biological father. But when others began making fun of him for being so unlike his parents, he began to wonder about his true identity.
He went to the oracle to ask about his true parents. The Oracle told him: “Do NOT go back to your native land because you are fated to kill your father and marry your mother!” This really freaked Oedipus out, so he decided never to return to Corinth (thinking that was his native land) so that he would not fulfill the prophesy.
A Tragic Case of Road Rage On his drive away from the Oracle, Oedipus was driving his chariot on a narrow road. Laius (Oedipus’s real father) was driving the other way, and the king’s charioteer ordered Oedipus to give way. Oedipus refused, and the charioteer killed one of his horses. Oedipus, in a rage, killed the charioteer and also Laius.
After Laius’ burial, Jocasta’s brother, Creon, becomes the ruler of Thebes. During this rule, the Sphinx appears, laying waste the Theban fields and declaring that she would not depart unless someone interpreted the riddle that she proposed, and that, in the meantime, she would eat and destroy whoever failed to give the correct answer. Answer my Riddle or I’ll eat you!!!
She said, “Here’s a riddle for you…figure it out!!” “What has one voice, is four- footed, three- footed, and two- footed?”
A Reward for Intelligence Many attempted to answer the Sphinx’s riddle, because the reward for a correct answer was great – Creon promised to whomever could solve the riddle the kingdom of Thebes, and also his widowed sister, Josasta, in marriage.
Many men were eaten by the Sphinx for giving incorrect answers to the riddle. However, Oedipus solved the riddle, and the Sphinx destroyed herself, as promised. Oedipus became the King of Thebes, and married Josasta (his biological mother). The Answer to the Riddle is…. A Man!!!
When the play opens… years have passed since Oedipus has killed his father and married his mother unknowingly, and the gods are not happy. A plague has struck the city, and the gods say that the city will not be spared until the corrupt thing is removed. Oedipus vows to find this corruption and once again save Thebes, but little does he know…the corruption is him. I’ll drive out the corruption once and for all – who is it?
DRAMATIC IRONY A situation in which the audience knows something that the character or characters do not. EXAMPLES: Romeo and Juliet The scene in any scary movie when the audience knows the bad guy is hiding just around the corner! Know any others?
Irony in Oedipus Greeks knew the story Adds a dimension to the experience. Oedipus is the quintessence of dramatic irony Look for examples of dramatic irony as we read Oedipus the King