1. What happened before the myth
Oedipus the King

2. The curse of cadmus
Cadmus, founder of Thebes, angers Apollo by killing the god’s favorite snake.
Apollo curses the descendants of Cadmus
The curse: “you will have a great-great-great grandson who will have a son that will kill his father and marry his mother.”

3. Lauis and jocasta
Many, many, many years ago, King Laius of Thebes marries Jocasta and has a son.
The Oracle tells him that his son will kill him and marry his wife.
Laius and Jocasta pinion the three-day old baby’s ankles and give the baby to a servant to be left on a nearby mountain.

4. Oedipus LIVES!
Eighteen years later, Oedipus wanders into Thebes and finds a Sphinx terrorizing the city.
The sphinx (a hybrid creature with a body of a lion, the head of a woman and wings) kills anyone who does not answer her riddle.
“What walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?”
Oedipus answers the riddle and becomes king of Thebes.

5. How do these two paintings express different ideas about the same story?
Left: Gustave Moreau, 1864
Right: Jean-Augst-Dominique Ingres, 1808