The most famous tragedy ever written started with a simple question. Laius, king of the Greek city of Thebes, traveled to Delphi — the holiest site in ancient Greece — to ask the Oracle if he'd have an heir. The answer destroyed him. Yes, he'd have a son. But that son would grow up to kill him and marry his own mother. Terrified, Laius had the newborn's ankles pinned together and ordered a servant to leave the baby on a mountainside to die. The name Oedipus literally means "swollen foot."
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The place
Delphi - Sanctuary of Apollo & Oracle
The Doom of Oedipus
The prophecy that could not be escaped
Mythological Era (Theban Cycle)Delphi - Sanctuary of Apollo & Oracle
Moral of the Story
“Fate cannot be escaped by fleeing it — often, the very attempt to escape brings the prophecy to fulfillment. True wisdom lies not in avoiding fate but in accepting it.”
Characters
O
OedipusJ
JocastaL
LaiusT
The PythiaT
The SphinxA
AntigoneSource
Sophocles's Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus, Apollodorus's Bibliotheca, Pausanias's Description of Greece