Oedipus

[ ed-uh-puhs, ee-duh- ]

noun

, Greek Legend.

1. a king of Thebes, the son of Laius and Jocasta, and the father by Jocasta of Eteocles, Polynices, Antigone, and Ismeme: as was prophesied at his birth, he unwittingly killed his father and married his mother and, in penance, blinded himself and went into exile.

Oedipus

/ ˈiːdɪpəs /

noun

1. Greek myth the son of Laius and Jocasta, the king and queen of Thebes, who killed his father, being unaware of his identity, and unwittingly married his mother, by whom he had four children. When the truth was revealed, he put out his eyes and Jocasta killed herself

Oedipus

1. In classical mythology , a tragic king who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother. The Delphic oracle predicted that King Laius of Thebes, a city in Greece , would be killed by his own son. To save himself, Laius ordered his newborn son placed on a mountaintop and left to starve. The infant was rescued by a shepherd and raised in a distant city, where he was given the name Oedipus. Years later, King Laius was killed while on a journey by a stranger with whom he quarreled. Oedipus arrived at Thebes shortly thereafter and saved the city from the ravages of the Sphinx . He was proclaimed king in Laius' stead, and he took the dead king's widow, Jocasta, as his own wife. After several years a terrible plague struck Thebes. The Delphic oracle told Oedipus that to end the plague, he must find and punish the murderer of King Laius. In the course of his investigation, Oedipus discovered that he himself was the killer and that Laius had been his real father. He had therefore murdered his father and married his mother, Jocasta. In his despair at this discovery, Oedipus blinded himself.

Notes

The Oedipus complex , identified by the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud , takes its name from the story of Oedipus.

The story of Oedipus is the subject of the play Oedipus Rexby Sophocles .

Example Sentences

He asks the program to upload his collected works along with other material, including “King Lear,” “Oedipus Rex,” a smattering of Ibsen, psychiatric papers and the journals of his late wife.

From Los Angeles Times

Oedipus may not have been able to outrun the oracle revealing that he would kill his father and marry his mother.

From Los Angeles Times

She’s “thrilled and itching” to then start rehearsals for her October to January run of “Oedipus” in London’s West End opposite Mark Strong.

From Los Angeles Times

Sigmund Freud no doubt would have chalked up Macbeth’s problems here to his unresolved Oedipus complex.

From Los Angeles Times

So goes the riddle of the Sphinx, and the answer, as Oedipus discerned, is man: crawling as an infant, bipedal as an adult, walking with a cane in old age.

From New York Times