What really happened to Oedipus? - Stephen Esposito
Though Oedipus would dodge death,
vanquish the monstrous Sphinx,
and whether wrathful plagues,
the truth would prove
his greatest challenger.
When Oedipus’ mother,
Queen Jocasta of Thebes,
gave birth to him,
a grim heir seized the occasion.
Her husband, King Laius, had received
a prophecy from Apollo’s oracle
foretelling that he would die
at the hands of his own son.
Determined to escape this fate,
Laius had the newborn’s ankles pierced,
and Jocasta ordered a shepherd to abandon
him on Mount Cithaeron to perish.
But divine prophecies
can be quite stubborn.
The shepherd took pity on the baby
and gave him to to another shepherd—
this one from Corinth.
He decided to bring the baby to the
childless Corinthian king and queen,
Polybus and Merope.
They called the boy Oedipus,
or “swollen-foot,”
and raised him as their own,
never revealing his true origin.
Years passed, till one night,
a drunken reveler told Oedipus that he was
not Polybus and Merope’s son by birth—
an allegation they staunchly denied.
But the seeds of doubt burrowed
into Oedipus’ mind.
He left to seek counsel
from Apollo’s oracle at Delphi,
who instead delivered
a deeply disturbing prophecy:
Oedipus would murder his father
and have children with his mother.
Horrified, Oedipus determined
to stay far from Corinth
and the only parents he’d ever known.
He ventured towards Thebes—
and thus, unwittingly,
towards the city where his
birth parents reigned.
At a crossroads on the way,
a fancy carriage threatened to run
Oedipus off the road,
and a lethal fight ensued.
Little did Oedipus know, one of the
casualties was King Laius of Thebes,
his own birth father.
In killing him, Oedipus had fulfilled
the first half of Apollo’s prophecy.
When Oedipus reached the gates of Thebes,
he was met by the treacherous Sphinx.
She’d ravaged the city,
posing a bewildering riddle
to those she encountered
and mercilessly devouring
all who answered incorrectly.
But when she fixed her keen,
expectant gaze on Oedipus,
he gave the correct response.
Thebes celebrated the Sphinx's defeat,
and Oedipus married the city's recently
widowed queen, Jocasta.
They had four children, neither realizing
they were, in fact, mother and son—
or that they’d completed the second half
of Apollo’s prophecy.
Eventually, a devastating plague
descended on Thebes.
To save the city, Oedipus sent his
brother-in-law to consult Apollo’s oracle.
She declared that the divine plague
would only relent
if the killer of Thebes’
previous king, Laius,
was finally revealed,
then driven out or avenged with blood.
Oedipus hastily opened an investigation.
He interrogated Tiresias, a blind prophet,
who stayed silent before suggesting
that Oedipus himself was the killer.
Oedipus denied and deflected
the accusation.
But it stuck with him.
Jocasta likewise insisted that Laius’
killer couldn’t have been Oedipus,
for she'd heard that Laius was killed
at a crossroads by robbers.
Yet, through conversations with a
messenger from Corinth and, finally,
the shepherd who’d rescued him
as an infant,
the truth came bearing down upon Oedipus.
In searching for Laius’ murderer,
he’d been looking for himself,
and Apollo’s prophecy had come to pass,
in all its dreadful detail.
Full of fury, resentment, and shame,
Oedipus rushed to kill Jocasta—
but she too had realized the truth
and taken her own life.
Using brooches from her dress,
Oedipus blinded himself in anguish,
expunging his deceitful sense of sight,
which had kept him
from truly seeing so much.
Oedipus begged for exile,
but was led back into the castle
to await word from Apollo’s oracle.
Thus ends Sophocles’ first play
centering Oedipus.
But it wouldn’t be his final word
on the tragic hero.
Decades later, a roughly 89-year-old
Sophocles wrote its sequel,
set in Colonus, his own birthplace.
It finds Oedipus, now aged and exiled,
confronted with accusations
of incest and patricide.
Oedipus, having accepted the truth
and released himself from its shame,
proclaims his innocence and maintains
that he committed these deeds unwittingly—
and unwillingly.
Finally, Oedipus knows it’s time to go—
and a divine voice urges him on.
Having said his loving farewells,
Oedipus then transcends—
peacefully and marvelously— into death.
