The Terrible Prophecy

While Theseus ruled over the Athenians, the throne in Thebes in Boeotia was occupied by King Laius and Queen Jocasta. In those days, people believed they could learn about the future by consulting the oracles, or priests who lived in the temples and pretended to deliver messages from the gods to mortals.

Hoping to learn what would happen to him and his family, Laios sent rich gifts to the temple at Delphi and asked what would become of him in the years to come. The messenger soon returned, but instead of bringing good news, he tremblingly repeated the oracle's words: "King Laios, you will have a son who will kill his father, marry his mother, and bring disaster upon his homeland!"

This news filled the king's heart with terror; and when a son was born to him a few months later, he decided to kill him rather than let him live to commit such dreadful crimes. But Laius was too cautious to harm an infant, so he commanded a servant to carry the child out of the city and take his life.

The man obeyed the first part of the king's orders; but when he came to a lonely spot on the mountain, he could not bring himself to kill the poor little baby. He thought that the child would soon die if left in this lonely place, so the servant tied him to a tree, and went back to the city and reported that he had gotten rid of him.

No more questions were asked, and everyone thought the baby was dead. However, it was not. His cries had caught the attention of a passing shepherd, who carried him home, and since he was too poor to keep him, he took him to the king of Corinth. Since the king had no children, he gladly adopted the little boy.

When the queen saw that the baby's ankles were swollen from the rope with which he had been hung in the tree, she tended him tenderly and called him Oedipus, which means "swollen-foot." This nickname stuck with the boy, who grew up believing that the king and queen of Corinth were his real parents.