OEDIPUS

Your fate was unavoidable, however unfair it seemed.

As in the case of Oedipus, son of King Laius and queen Jocasta of Thebes.

The Warning! An Oracle said Oedipus would kill his father and

Marry his mother, so Laius exposed him on a mountain to die so it could not come true.

The Escape! A shepherd found the baby and took him to Corinth

where the King and Queen took pity on him. He believed that these were his real parents. When he heard the prophecy he ran away hoping to

avoid his fate.

The prophecy comes true. On the road, Oedipus quarrelled with a man he met.

Neither would step out of the others way. There was a fight and Oedipus killed him. He did not know it, but the man was Laius (his true

father) So part of the prophecy had come true.

Near Thebes, Oedipus met the Sphinx, a beast with a woman's head, a lion’s body, serpents tail and eagles wings.

She asked passers by a riddle.

The Riddle

“What goes on four legs in the morning, two at

midday and three in the evenings, and is

weakest when it has most legs”

She killed anyone who could not answer.

No one had ever escaped until Oedipus answered correctly.

The Sphinx flung herself over a cliff in humiliation.

The Thebians were delighted and made Oedipus king, as Laius was dead.

He married the dead kings wife, Jocasta, and so unknowingly fulfilled the other half of the prophecy.

All went well for a while, but then a plague struck thebes.

The Oracle said the only cure was to avenge Laius’s death.

Oedipus cursed the murderer not knowing it was himself.

The seer, Tiresias revealed the truth and enquiries in Corinth confirmed it.

Jocasta hanged herself in shame and Oedipus blinded himself with her broach pin.

He left Thebes with his daughter Antigone, and died near Athens.

Theseus buried him honourably.

Vegetable Oedipus http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=NydKPClhYgM