Chapter XXIX: Oedipus

There was once a king of Thebes called Laïus, and he had a wife whose name was Jocasta. There was also a soothsayer in Thebes, who said that if the queen had a son it would be a great misfortune, for that when he grew up, he would kill his father and marry his mother. Some time afterwards the queen had a little son, a strong child with bright merry eyes; but Laïus determined to kill it in order to prevent the prediction of the soothsayer from coming true, and he told one of his servants to take the little child to a mountain called Cithaeron, which was covered with forests, and leave it there to be devoured by wild beasts; but before he sent it away, the king tied a string tightly round its ankles, which made the little feet swell. The servant did as he was told, and left the child lying in the forest. But it happened that the cattle of Polybus, the king of Corinth, were at that time pasturing on the mountain, and one of the herdsmen who was in charge of them, chanced, in searching for a cow that had gone astray, to go through the forest and to pass by the spot where the child of King Laïus had been left to perish. He was sorry for the poor little thing, and he took it up and untied the string round its feet, and laid cooling {206} herbs upon the sore places. King Polybus and his wife had no child, though they wished very much for one, and the herdsman, who knew this, thought that they might like to have the little stranger to bring up as their own son. He took the beautiful little boy to Corinth and showed him to the king and queen, who were very much pleased, and they said they would keep him for their own, and told the herdsman not to let any one know that he had found him in the forest. So Laïus thought that his child had been devoured by wild beasts, while the Corinthians thought that the gods had granted the wish of their queen and had sent her a child, and nobody, not even the king and queen themselves, knew that he was the son of Laïus and Jocasta. The child's feet were still swollen when he was brought to Corinth, so they called him Oedipus, which means Swollen-Foot.

Oedipus grew up to be brave and strong, and the king and queen, who were very fond of him, treated him just as if they were his real parents and never told him that he had not been born in Corinth. When he was a young man, he went one day to Delphi to ask the Oracle what would happen to him, and the priestess answered, 'You will kill your father and marry your mother.' Oedipus shuddered, and resolved to leave Corinth at once that he might never fulfil such a horrible prediction. He ordered his chariot, and let his horses take whichever road they pleased, for he did not care where he went, so long as it was away from Corinth. By-and-by he came to a strange country, and found himself in a narrow lane where there was not even room for two chariots to pass one another, and whilst {207} he was still in this narrow lane, he met a king who was coming in his chariot from the opposite direction. The king commanded Oedipus to stand aside and let him pass in such a haughty manner that Oedipus refused to obey him, and after they had exchanged some angry words, they seized their arms, and Oedipus before long struck the king a deadly blow. The king was Laïus, the father of Oedipus, and thus a part of the Oracle was already fulfilled; but Oedipus did not know this, and he did not feel at all sorry for having killed the stranger, as it was he who had begun the quarrel. He went on through Greece and accomplished many brave deeds, and after some time he came to the neighbourhood of Thebes, where he heard a strange story indeed.

On the mountain near Thebes, there was a monster called the Sphinx, who could speak. She devoured both men and cattle, and no one had been able to overcome her. She asked every one who came near her a riddle which she had learnt from the Muses, who are the goddesses of song, and she devoured every one who could not answer it; but it had been decreed by fate that if any one should ever succeed in guessing it, she would be obliged to throw herself down from the mountain and die. Many people had already tried to do so, but they had all failed and had been devoured by the Sphinx in consequence, so that no one else would attempt it, and there was no end to the misery in the land. The Thebans met together to consider what could be done, and they agreed that if any one would answer the riddle and deliver the city from the monster, he should, as a reward, be made king of Thebes, and have Jocasta for his wife. King Laïus had been found {208} dead in the narrow lane some time before, but it was not known who had killed him.

When Oedipus heard that the Thebans had agreed to give the kingdom to any one who would deliver them from the Sphinx, he said to himself, 'I dare not return to my father's country, and I will therefore seek to win a kingdom for myself,' for he still thought that his father was the king of Corinth. So he set out for the mountain where the Sphinx lived. She was like a gigantic lioness, with a woman's head, and powerful wings growing out of her shoulders, and all round her lay the bones of the men whom she had devoured. It was a horrible sight, but Oedipus was not afraid, and he desired her to tell him the riddle. Then she began to sing, 'There is a creature of wondrous kind; at first it goes on four legs, then on two, and at last it uses three. There is none like it among all those that walk on the earth, or swim in the water, or fly in the air.' Oedipus put his hand to his forehead and thought for a while. Then it came into his mind that as a little child, man crawls about on four legs, and that in his old age he uses a stick, which is just like a third leg, and he said, 'The wonderful creature is man.' As soon as the words had passed his lips, the Sphinx threw herself from the mountain, and fell down dead into the valley below. The Thebans, who were watching from the city, saw what happened, and they came out to meet Oedipus with shouts of joy. They hailed him as their king and led him into the palace, and on the same day he was married to Queen Jocasta. Thus he became the husband of his mother, and the whole of the prophecy was fulfilled. But he did not know this, and was very happy. {209} He lived in great riches, and to all seeming, in great honour, so that there was no one who did not look upon him as a very fortunate man.

Many years had passed away, when there came a messenger to Thebes to tell Oedipus that King Polybus was dead, and to beg him to return to Corinth and be king of the city. But Oedipus would not return there on account of the Oracle, for though King Polybus, whom he believed to be his father, was dead, the queen was still alive, and he feared that some madness might come over him and make him desire to marry his mother. He told this to the messenger, who, as it happened, was the old herdsman who had found Oedipus in the forest when he was a child; and he, thinking to do the king a great service, told him in return that he was not the son of Polybus, but a strange child who had been found on Mount Cithaeron with his feet tied together by a string. As soon as Jocasta heard this, she knew that Oedipus must be her son, and when he began to inquire about his father, he found that he must have been the king whom he had killed in the narrow lane. All his prosperity and all his happiness had now left him at a single blow, and there was not a man in Thebes who did not consider himself better off than the king. He was so wretched that he put out his own eyes because he could not bear to face the contemptuous looks of the Thebans; and as for Jocasta, she went into her bedchamber and hanged herself.

The Greeks believed that the presence of any one who had committed a great crime, even though he had done so unintentionally, made them unholy and brought misfortune upon them, and on account of this, the {210} Thebans resolved to banish Oedipus from their city. He had two sons who were strong youths and might have protected their father if they had chosen, but they would not interfere, because they wanted to rule over the city themselves. The blind king was led out of the city, but when he came to the gate he turned round and prayed to the gods to punish his sons. He would have been left quite alone to stumble over every stone that lay in his path, if it had not been for one of his daughters, who resolved to share his misery, and who left the beautiful palace in order to take care of her unhappy father in his distress. She was his eldest daughter, and her name was Antigone. She and Oedipus wandered from place to place, living on the food that kind people threw to them, and their couch at night was often beneath the blue sky with a hard stone for their pillow, for the people were afraid to allow the blind king to come into their houses, because of the crimes that he had committed. Antigone suffered from hunger and cold, and her feet were torn and bleeding from the thorns, but she did not think much about that, it was the misery of her father that pierced her heart.

After they had wandered for many years, they came at last to Athens where Theseus, who was always willing to help those who were in trouble was then king. In the middle of the city was the Altar of Pity which he had erected,[1] and Oedipus seated himself on one of the steps of the altar as a sign that he sought for help. Then Theseus came and asked who he was, and when he heard his name, instead of turning away from him {211} with a shudder as every one else did, he took him by the hand and led him into the palace, where he lived with Antigone during the rest of his life. Before long, however, Oedipus died, and his body was solemnly burnt by the Athenians, for the Oracle said that they must take great care of his ashes, which would prove a blessing to the city.

[1] See page 196.

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