Introduction
One of the great myths of ancient Greece, the tragedy of Oedipus tells how the King of Thebes and a shepherd boy each tried to evade their destinies, and how their destinies refused to be changed.
WHEN Laius, King of Thebes,* heard it foretold that his baby son would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother, he ordered that he be left outside to die. But a tender-hearted courtier entrusted the baby to a shepherd and his wife instead.
Many years later, the boy they had named Oedipus ran away, for men whispered that he was fated to kill his father and marry his mother. As he went, he bumped into an old man, who haughtily cuffed him into a ditch. Oedipus whirled his staff, and whack! the old man was dead.
Oedipus fled without learning that the haughty old man was Laius.
Creon, the king’s brother-in-law, was sorry to hear the news. But finding the culprit was not as urgent as the fact that he, Creon, was now responsible for the sphinx.* She was a truly maddening creature foisted on Thebes by Hera, who sat by the city gates propounding riddles, and throttling anyone giving an unsatisfactory solution.
This is the ancient Greek city in Boeotia, a more northerly region of the peninsula on which Athens stands; see Google maps. Another Thebes, Thebes of the Hundred Gates, was at one time capital of the New Kingdom of Egypt. Another ancient Greek city named Thebes lay in Thessaly further north.
In Greek tradition, the sphinx had a woman’s head and the back parts of a lioness; sometimes she was depicted as having wings. The Egyptian sphinx, famous for the statue among the Great Pyramids, was male.
Précis
It was prophesied that baby Oedipus would one day murder his father Laius, King of Thebes, and marry his mother. He was given away to a shepherd and his wife, but later ran away to save his foster-parents from the same fate, only to kill Laius in an accident, and fulfil half of the prophecy he was trying to evade. (60 / 60 words)
It was prophesied that baby Oedipus would one day murder his father Laius, King of Thebes, and marry his mother. He was given away to a shepherd and his wife, but later ran away to save his foster-parents from the same fate, only to kill Laius in an accident, and fulfil half of the prophecy he was trying to evade.
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Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: because, besides, may, or, otherwise, since, unless, who.
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Why did Laius try to kill his own son?
Suggestion
To prevent the boy from killing him. (7 words)
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
An oracle said Oedipus would kill his father. Oedipus thought Phorbas was his father. He ran away from home.