The king of Thebes, the son of Cadmus, Polydorus, and his wife Nyctida had a son Labdacus, who inherited power over Thebes. Labdak's son and successor was Laius. One day Laius visited King Pelops and stayed with him for a long time in Pis. Laius repaid Pelops with black ingratitude for his hospitality. Laius kidnapped the young son of Pelops, Chrysippus, and took him to Thebes. The angry and saddened father cursed Laius, and in his curse he wished that the gods would punish the kidnapper of his son by destroying his own son. This is how Chrysippus’s father cursed Laius, and this father’s curse had to be fulfilled.
Returning to the seven gates of Thebes, Laius married the daughter of Menoeceus, Jocasta. Laius lived quietly in Thebes for a long time, and only one thing worried him: he had no children. Finally, Laius decided to go to Delphi and there ask the god Apollo about the reason for childlessness. The priestess of Apollo, the Pythia Laius, gave a formidable answer. She said:
“Son of Labdak, the gods will fulfill your wish, you will have a son, but know this: you will die at the hand of your son.” The curse of Pelops will be fulfilled!
Lai was horrified. He thought for a long time how to avoid the dictates of inexorable fate; finally, he decided that he would kill his son as soon as he was born.
Soon, Lai actually had a son. The cruel father tied the legs of his newborn son with belts, pierced his feet with a sharp iron, called a slave and ordered him to throw the baby in the forest on the slopes of Kiferon, so that wild animals would tear him to pieces. But the slave did not carry out Lai’s orders. He took pity on the child and secretly handed over the little boy to the slave of the Corinthian king Polybus. This slave was just at that time tending his master’s flock on the slopes of Kiferon. The slave took the boy to King Polybus, and he, being childless, decided to raise him as his heir. King Polybus named the boy Oedipus because his legs were swollen from wounds.
This is how Oedipus grew up with Polybus and his wife Merope, who called him their son, and Oedipus himself considered them his parents. But one day, when Oedipus had already grown up and matured, at a feast one of his friends, drunk, called him a foster child, which amazed Oedipus. Doubts crept into his soul. He went to Polybus and Merope and for a long time persuaded them to reveal to him the secret of his birth. But neither Polybus nor Merope told him anything. Then Oedipus decided to go to Delphi and there find out the secret of his birth.
As a simple wanderer, Oedipus went to Delphi. Arriving there, he asked the oracle. The radiant Apollo answered him through the lips of the soothsayer Pythia:
- Oedipus, your fate is terrible! You will kill your father, marry your own mother, and from this marriage will be born children cursed by the gods and hated by all people.
Oedipus was horrified. How can he avoid an evil fate, how can he avoid parricide and marriage to his mother? After all, the oracle did not name his parents. Oedipus decided not to return to Corinth anymore. What if Polybus and Merope are his parents? Will he really become the murderer of Polybus and the husband of Merope? Oedipus decided to remain an eternal wanderer without a family, without a tribe, without a homeland.
But is it possible to escape the dictates of fate? Oedipus did not know that the more he tried to avoid his fate, the more faithfully he would follow the path that fate had assigned him.
Oedipus left Delphi as a homeless wanderer. He did not know where to go, and chose the first road he came across. This was the road that led to Thebes. On this road, at the foot of Parnassus, where three paths converged, in a narrow gorge Oedipus met a chariot in which a gray-haired, majestic-looking old man was riding, a herald was driving the chariot, and servants were following her. The herald rudely called out to Oedipus, ordered him to get out of the way and swung his whip at him. The angry Oedipus hit the herald and was about to pass by the chariot, when suddenly the old man waved his staff and hit Oedipus on the head.
Oedipus became enraged, and in anger he hit the old man with his staff so hard that he fell dead on his back to the ground. Oedipus rushed at the escorts and killed them all; only one slave managed to escape unnoticed. Thus the command of fate was fulfilled: Oedipus killed, without knowing, his father Laius. After all, this old man was Laius, he was traveling to Delphi to ask Apollo how to save Thebes from the bloodthirsty Sphinx.
Oedipus calmly walked on. He considered himself innocent of murder: after all, he was not the one who attacked first, because he defended himself. Oedipus walked further and further along his chosen path and finally came to Thebes.
Great despondency reigned in Thebes. Two disasters struck the city of Cadmus. The terrible Sphinx, the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, settled near Thebes on Mount Sphingione and demanded more and more victims, and then a slave brought the news that King Laius had been killed by some unknown person. Seeing the grief of the citizens, Oedipus decided to save them from trouble; he decided to go to the Sphinx himself.
The Sphinx was a terrible monster with the head of a woman, the body of a huge lion, with paws armed with sharp lion claws, and with huge wings. The gods decided that the Sphinx would remain with Thebes until someone solved its riddle. The muses told this riddle to the Sphinx. All travelers passing by were forced by the Sphinx to solve this riddle, but no one could solve it, and everyone died a painful death in the iron embrace of the Sphinx’s clawed paws. Many valiant Thebans tried to save Thebes from the Sphinx, but they all died.
Oedipus came to the Sphinx, who offered him his riddle:
- Tell me, who walks in the morning on four legs, in the afternoon on two, and in the evening on three? None of all the creatures living on earth changes as much as he does. When he walks on four legs, then he has less strength and moves more slowly than at other times.
Oedipus did not think for a single moment and immediately answered:
- This is a man! When he is small, when it is only the morning of his life, he is weak and slowly crawls on all fours. During the day, that is, in adulthood, he walks on two legs, and in the evening, that is, in old age, he becomes decrepit, and, needing support, takes a crutch; then he walks on three legs.
This is how Oedipus solved the riddle of the Sphinx. And the Sphinx, flapping its wings, rushed from the cliff into the sea. It was decided by the gods that the Sphinx should die if anyone solved its riddle. Thus Oedipus freed Thebes from disaster.
When Oedipus returned to Thebes, the Thebans proclaimed him king, since even earlier it had been decided by Creon, who ruled in place of the murdered Laius, that the king of Thebes should be the one who would save them from the Sphinx. Having reigned in Thebes, Oedipus married Laius' widow Jocasta and had two daughters from her, Antigone and Ismene, and two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices. Thus the second command of fate was fulfilled: Oedipus became the husband of his own mother, and his children were born from her.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru