Briana

[[image:oedipus_at_colonus.jpg width="389" height="387" caption="Oedipus and Jocasta" link="http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/000Images/oim/oedipus1834.jpg"]]Oedipus
Oedipus was born unto the King and Queen of Thebes, Lauis and Jocasta, but before Oedipus was born his parents were having a hard time getting pregnant. So, they contacted the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi. The oracle told the King they would soon bear a child, but the child would kill him and marry his mother. Once Queen Jocasta had Oedipus his father, King Lauis, pinned his feet together and gave the chiold to a shepard to abandon the baby on the side of the mountain, but the Shepard felt bad for the boy and gave him to another shepard from Corinth. Oedipus then was brought up in house of King Polybus and his queen, Merope who were without children of their own. Oedipus was named after the scars on his feet. Years later, someone told Oedipus that Polybus and Merope were not his real parents. Seeking answers Oedipus asked the Oracle of Apollo if Polybus and Merope were his real parents, the oracle told Oedipus they were not his parents, but would not reveal who his real parents were. The oracle also told Oedipus he would kill his father and marry his mother. So, the frightened Oedipus flees Corinth to go to Thebes. On his way there he enters a three way crossroads, were he is meets with a chariot. In the chariot was Oedipus's unrecognized father, Lauis. They fight over who should go first and Oedipus wins, killing his father. As oedipus continued his journey to Thebes he runs into a sphinx. The sphinx would stop all travelers amoung this road and they would have to answer a riddle. If they answered correctly they could continue their journey, if not they were eaten. So as Oedipus apraoched the sphinx the sphinx asked him the riddle; "What walks on four feet in the morning, two in the afternoon and three at night?" And oedipus replied,"Man, as a child he crawls on all fours, as an adult he walks on his two feet, and as an elder he walks with two feet and a cane." The sphinx was so surprised that Oedipus answered the question right that he threw himself to his death off a cliff. The people of Thebes were so happy that the sphinx had died, they offered Oedipus the throne of Thebes. Therefore, offering Jocasta, Oedipus's mother, as his wife unknowinly fufilling the prophecy. The people of Thebes just guessed the Sphinx had killed King Lauis unknowing Oedipus had done it. King Oedipus and Queen Jocasta had bore four children Polynecies, Eteocles, Antigone, and Ismene. After many years of marriage, Thebes became a horrible place to live; crops wouldn't grow, women couldn't bear children, and the city went into infertility. So, King Oedipus sent Creon, Jocasta's bother, to the oracle for advice. The oracle told Creon Lauis's killer had to be found and exiled. King Oedipus went in search for the killer unknowing it was he. Jocasta realized the old prophecy and hung herself. Then after King Oedipus found out the truth as well from the shepard he had once been given to, and so Oedipus killed himself. My opinion on Oedipus isn't clear. I don't quite get the moral of the story. There are also no companies or words named after Oedipus due to the simple fact that none wants to name there business after someone who killed there father and married there mother. The source I used was a book called Oedipus the King by Sophicles, Stephen Berg, and Diskin Clay.