Oedip

Oedip, often rendered Oedipus in English, is a figure in Greek mythology best known from Sophocles’ plays. The name derives from the Greek Oidipous, meaning “swollen foot,” a reference to a childhood injury.

In myth, Oedipus is the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes. A prophecy foretells that he will kill his father and marry his mother. To prevent this, Laius orders the infant Oedipus to be killed, but the child survives and is raised by others as a prince of Corinth, unaware of his true parentage.

As an adult, Oedipus leaves Corinth to avoid the prophecy, believing his caregivers to be his parents. On his journey he encounters Laius and kills him in a single meeting, thereby fulfilling part of the prophecy. He arrives in Thebes, where the city is plagued by a Sphinx that presents a riddle. Oedipus solves the riddle, the Sphinx is defeated, and he is rewarded with the throne of Thebes and Jocasta as his wife.

The truth of his origins later comes to light: Jocasta is his mother, and Laius his father. Jocasta commits suicide; Oedipus blinds himself and goes into exile, eventually at Colonus near Athens. His children with Jocasta—Eteocles, Polynices, Antigone, and Ismene—feature in later Theban legends.

The myth has influenced literature and psychology, giving rise to the term “Oedipus complex,” used by Sigmund Freud to describe a child’s feelings toward a parent of the opposite sex.