The Calamities Surrounding Oedipus’ Life Right From Birth

Oedipus, a descendant of Venus from his father’s side, was born to Laius, the king of Thebes and his queen Jocasta, to be exposed to all the calamities which Juno could inflict upon the posterity of the goddess of beauty - Venus had won the prize of the golden apple of Discord over Juno in the fairest of maidens’ contest, and thus her hatred towards Venus is well known.

Laius, Oedipus’ father and the ruler of Thebes was informed by the oracle that if he married Jocasta, a distant cousin of his, he was doomed to be murdered by the offspring born of their union. To prevent the fulfilling of this oracle, he resolved never to approach Jocasta; but his solemn resolutions were violated in a fit of intoxication, and the queen became pregnant. Still intent to stop this evil, Laius ordered Jocasta to destroy the infant as soon as it was born. Jocasta’s motherly instincts could not obey this order; and she gave her baby to one of her domestics with the order that he be left exposed to die on the mount Cithaeron, while at heart she prayed to the Fates to protect her infant The servant, taking pity, instead bored the heels of the child with a twig and suspended him by a tree on the mount, where a shepherd of the kingdom of Corinth later found him and took it to the king to report the matter. Polybus and his wife Periboea, however, being childless, deemed this to be the work of the gods and decided to raise the child with tender care as if of their own-born. The accomplishments and intelligence of a boy of immense strength made him known as Oedipus on account of the swelling of his feet (Oedema), and he soon became the admiration of the age and the envy of his companions, one of whom in order to mortify his rising ambition, told him of his illegitimacy as a future heir to the throne.

His doubts now raised, he asked Periboea who told him that his suspicions were ill founded. Unable to believe her fully, he went to consult the oracle of Delphi, and was there told not to return home. For, if he did, he must necessarily be the slayer of his father. Knowing of no other father than Polybus, and Corinth as his homeland, where such calamity awaited him, he decided to leave the country for good, and traveled towards Phocis. In his journey, he met in a narrow road Laius on a chariot with his arms-bearer. Laius haughtily ordered Oedipus to make way for him. Oedipus refused, and a contest ensued, in which Laius and his arms-bearer were both killed.

Ignorant of the rank of the men he had just killed, he continued his journey and was attracted to Thebes by the fame of the Sphinx. This terrible monster, which Juno had sent to lay waste on the country, resorted in the neighborhood of Thebes, and devoured all those who attempted to explain, without success, the enigmas which he proposed. The calamity had now become an object of public concern, and as the successful explanation of a riddle would end in the death of the Sphinx, Creon, Jocasta’s brother, who at the death of Laius had ascended the throne of Thebes, promised his crown and Jocasta to him who succeeded in the attempt. The riddle proposed was this: What animal in the morning walks upon four feet, at noon upon two, and in the evening upon three? This was left for Oedipus to explain; he came to the monster and said, that man, in the morning of life, walks upon his hands and feet; when he has attained the years of manhood, he walks upon his two legs; and in the evening, he supports his old age with the help of a staff. The monster, mortified at the true explanation, dashed her head against a rock and perished. Oedipus ascended the throne of Thebes, and married Jocasta, by whom he had two sons, Polynices and Eteocles, and two daughters, Ismene and Antigone.

Some years after, the Theban territories were visited with a plague; and the oracle declared that it would cease only when the murderer of king Laius was banished from Boeotia. The mystery of this declaration was a matter of great concern for the Thebans, as the death of Laius had never been examined. Oedipus, the friend of his people, resolved to conduct most exact inquiries. His researches were successful, and he was soon to be the murderer of his father. The melancholy discovery was rendered the more alarming when Oedipus considered that he had not only murdered his father, but that he had committed incest with his mother. In the excess of grief he put out his eyes, as unworthy to see the light, and banished himself from Thebes. He retired towards Attica, led by his daughter Antigone, and came near Colonus, where there was a grove sacred to the Furies. He remembered that he was doomed by the oracle to die in such a place, and to become the source of prosperity to the country in which his bones were buried.

A messenger upon this was sent to Theseus, king of Athens, to inform him of the resolution of Oedipus. When Theseus arrived, Oedipus acquainted him, with a prophetic voice, that the gods had called him to die in the place where he stood; and to show the truth of this he walked, by himself, without the assistance of a guide, to the spot where he must expire. Immediately the earth opened, and Oedipus disappeared.