Incest

According to some accounts Oedipus and Jocasta had four children: Eteocles, Polyneices, Antigone, and Ismene. Other accounts attribute other wives to the hero, possibly to overcome audiences’ distaste at the idea of incest between a mother and son. In these accounts Euryganeia, the second wife of Oedipus, was sometimes credited as the mother of Eteocles, Polyneices, Antigone, and Ismene. Jocasta was childless, or their children were two obscure mythological characters called Phrastor and Laonytus. In some versions of the myth Oedipus married again after Euryganeia, to a

The Greek Sphinx

According to different myths, the Greek Sphinx was the female offspring of the monster Typhon and the snake-woman monster Echidna, or of the two-headed hound Orthus and the firebreathing she-goat monster Chimaera. Her sister was the Nemean Lion, a murderous beast that Heracles had to kill for his first labor. Hera, the goddess of marriage, sent the Sphinx to terrorize Thebes because she held the Thebans accountable for Oedipus's marriage to his mother. Although Homer and tragedians agree that Oedipus solved the Sphinx's riddle, there are various accounts of how the Sphinx met her death. The most common version states that the Sphinx threw herself from a great height onto rocks, but another version claims that Oedipus pushed the Sphinx to her death. While both accounts are equally dramatic, the second undermines the exercise of solving the riddle and is not traditional.

Right: Oedipus confronts the Sphinx in this painting by French artist Gustave Moreau (1826—1898). The Sphinx was a monster with a woman’s head, eagle’s wings, and lion’s body.

Princess named Astymedusa. Some scholars speculate that the extra marriages were intended to avoid any implication that the Theban royal family was incestuous.

When Oedipus and Jocasta’s children were reaching adulthood, a plague came upon the city. Eventually the plague became so bad that the Thebans consulted the blind seer Tiresias. Tiresias declared that the pestilence would cease if a descendent of the founders of Thebes died voluntarily to save the city. Menoeceus, father ofJocasta, threw himself to his death from the walls of the city. The plague ceased but Tiresias now said that although the gods were content with the death of Menoeceus, they had originally referred to another man. Tiresias told Jocasta that this man was Oedipus, and when she told her husband, he arrogantly refused to believe her. Around this time, however, Oedipus received a letter from his adoptive mother, Queen Periboea of Corinth. The letter, written following the death of King Polybus, revealed Oedipus’s true identity. He was Jocasta’s son and Laius’s murderer. Menoetes, the herdsman who had exposed Oedipus when he was a baby, also identified him by the scars on his feet and ankles as the son of Laius. On hearing the news, Jocasta either hanged herself or killed herself with a sword, while Oedipus blinded himself with brooches that he tore from

Jocasta’s robes. Following the sentence he himself had decreed for the murderer of Laius, Oedipus went into exile, accompanied by his daughter Antigone. Before leaving, Oedipus handed the kingdom ofThebes to his sons Polyneices and Eteocles. Some versions of the myth claim that his sons imprisoned him before he could leave Thebes, hoping that his disgrace might be forgotten. Oedipus cursed his sons so that they would never agree between them who should become the next king of Thebes.

The Oedipus Complex

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was a psychologist who is regarded as the father of psychoanalysis by psychologists today. He used Oedipus's name as shorthand for instances when his patients experienced a sexual attraction to their parents; his interpretation of the myth is renowned. Freud's theory of the Oedipus complex centers around the idea that between the ages of 3 and 5 a child experiences feelings of attraction toward the parent of the opposite sex. At the same time, the child experiences a feeling of rivalry with the parent of the same sex. Freud argued that these issues were part of normal human development. Modern psychologists argue that Freud's theory is not correct and interpret the Oedipus myth differently; they explain the relationship between Oedipus and his parents in terms of resentment of parental authority, not sexual rivalry.

Polyneices and Eteocles tried to avoid the curse by agreeing that they should rule Thebes alternately for a year at a time. This agreement did not last long, however: Eteocles seized power and refused to share the throne with his brother.

Meanwhile, Oedipus had taken refuge at Colonus in Attica, where he was welcomed by King Theseus of Athens. While he was in Colonus, the disagreement between his sons worsened and war approached. Before conflict broke out, an oracle stated that the victor would be allied with Oedipus. Creon came to Oedipus on behalf of Eteocles and attempted to persuade him to return to Thebes. When Oedipus refused, Creon endeavored to take him there by force. Theseus intervened in time to save Oedipus, who remained in Colonus.

Aided by King Adrastus of Argos, Polyneices raised an army to march against his younger brother, who had banished Polyneices from Thebes and now controlled the city Polyneices went to his exiled father at Colonus and asked for his support. Oedipus responded to the request by issuing another curse, in which he doomed his sons to kill each other.

The Thebans prepared for war by taking their treasures out of the city. Soon after, allies of Polyneices known as

Below: This illustration from de Claris Mulieribus, by Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio (1313—1375), depicts different stages of the Oedipus myth. The woman stabbing herself is Oedipus’s mother Jocasta, who can not bear the fact that she has married her son.

Above: This painting by French artist Ernest Hillemacher (1818—1887) shows Antigone guiding her blind father, Oedipus. In some versions of the myth, Oedipus blinds himself after discovering that he has killed his father and married his mother.

The Seven Against Thebes attacked the city. Polyneices’ forces were defeated, Oedipus’s sons killed each other in battle, and Creon came to power again. Oedipus’s daughter Ismene also perished during the war. She was killed in bed by Tydeus, king of Argos, while she lay with her lover Theoclymenus.

After the war King Creon decreed that the body of Polyneices be left on the battlefield to rot. In ancient Greece, this was an undignified end for fallen soldiers. When Creon’s niece Antigone learned of her brother’s death and Creon’s edict, she insisted that Polyneices be buried. When Creon discovered her disobedience, he imprisoned her for failing to follow his decree. Antigone killed herself in captivity. Ten years later, sons of the seven allies of Polyneices, known as the Epigoni, captured Thebes to avenge the death of their fathers.

Shortly after meeting with Polyneices, Oedipus died. Some versions of the myth say that he died at Colonus, others say that it was Thebes. Again, accounts differ as to whether he died of natural causes or killed himself. Although Oedipus was an exile and an outcast in most versions of the myth, his grave was regarded with reverence by ancient Greeks because of a prophecy which said that any land containing his tomb would be blessed by the gods.

Lyn Green

Bibliography

Bulfinch, Thomas. Bulfmch’s Mythology. New York: Barnes &

Noble, 2006.

Homer, and Robert Fagles, trans. The Iliad. New York: Penguin, 2009.

Homer, and Robert Fagles, trans. The Odyssey. New York:

Penguin, 2009.

Howatson, M. C. The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

See also: Antigone; Cadmus; Heracles;Theseus;Tiresias.