The Tragedy of King Oedipus

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.

Laius’s brother Creon offered the Theban throne to anyone who could rid Thebes of the deadly sphinx. Oedipus duly won both the crown and Queen Jocasta. Eventually the awful the truth, that he had unwittingly killed his father and married his mother, came out, and he gave up his throne, dying in exile.

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