Oedipus.
The answer he could not recognize
Oedipus: Greek Myth, the Sphinx’s Riddle and His Tragedysolves the Sphinx’s riddle and becomes king of Thebes, yet fails to recognize the truth of his own family. His story turns an attempt to escape a prophecy into a devastating investigation of identity.
More than a myth.
The prophecy and the crossroads
Warned that a son will kill him, Laius orders the infant exposed. The child survives and is raised in Corinth. As a young man he leaves the people he believes to be his parents to avoid a prophecy of killing his father and marrying his mother. At a crossroads he encounters Laius and kills him in a quarrel, without knowing the relationship.
How Oedipus defeats the Sphinx
threatens Thebes with a riddle about a creature that changes its number of feet over a lifetime. answers that it is a human being. He wins the kingship and marries the widowed queen Jocasta. The successful solver can identify the human life in a riddle while remaining ignorant of the particular life he is living.
Recognition in the ancient accounts
’ the King stages the discovery through an investigation into Thebes’s pollution and the murder of Laius. Other sources compress the events or vary what follows. Jocasta’s death and Oedipus’s self-blinding are central to the tragic version familiar today. The ancient story should be distinguished from the much later psychological term that borrowed his name.
Questions about Oedipus
What was the answer to the Sphinx’s riddle?
A human being: crawling in infancy, walking on two feet as an adult, and using a stick in old age. The wording of the riddle varies in retellings.
Did Oedipus know who his parents were?
He initially believes his Corinthian foster parents are his birth parents. The failure to recognize Laius and Jocasta makes his efforts to avoid the prophecy tragically misdirected.
It’s a family affair.
Oedipus
Thebes, the Sphinx & tragic recognitionNo children represented in this edition.
The stories of Oedipus.
Continue with the ancient accounts.
This story collection does not yet include a full retelling centered on Oedipus. Explore the cited sources below and the connected profiles for more of the surviving accounts.
Ancient voices.
Enduring stories.
Myths have many tellings. These are the ancient works behind this profile, linked to freely available English translations.
Library
Book 3.5.7–9 · Oedipus and the Sphinx
Oedipus the King
The investigation and recognition