Since Apollo predicted Lai's death at the hands of his own son, he ordered his wife to throw the newborn on Mount Kiferon, piercing his tendons with a pin at the ankles. However, the shepherd, who received the child from Queen Jocasta and did not know the true reason for such a decision, took pity on the newborn and gave it to the Corinthian shepherd, whom he met on the mountain pastures. He took the child to his childless king Polybus, who named the boy Oedipus ("with swollen legs") and raised him as his own son. Once, when Oedipus was already an adult young man, some walker in Corinth called him a foundling, and, although the adoptive parents in every possible way reassured their son and did not reveal to him the secret of his birth, Oedipus decided to go to Delphi to ask the oracle of Apollo about his origin. Instead of answering, the oracle gave Oedipus a prophecy that he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Not daring to return to Corinth, which he considered his homeland, Oedipus went to seek happiness in a foreign land. On the way from Delphi, at the crossroads of three roads, he met a noble man in a chariot, accompanied by servants. In the ensuing quarrel of the road, the stranger hit Oedipus on the head with a heavy scepter, and in response, the angry youth killed the attacker, his driver and all, as it seemed to him, servants with a travel staff. However, one man from Lai's retinue (for it was he) escaped, returned to Thebes and said that the king had died at the hands of robbers. Oedipus, continuing on his way, approached Thebes and solved the riddle of the monstrous Sphinx... In gratitude for the deliverance of Thebes from a prolonged calamity, the Theban citizens made Oedipus their king and married the widow Lai. The only witness of the meeting of Oedipus with Laem, the servant who brought the news of the attack of the robbers, after Oedipus' accession to Thebes asked Jocasta for a distant pasture and did not appear in the city again. So the prophecy given to Oedipus in Delphi was fulfilled, although neither he himself nor Jocasta knew about it and for about 20 years led a happy married life, during which four children were born: Polynices, Eteocles, Antigone, Ismena ... Only after a long period of time, when Thebes was struck by a pestilence and the Delphic oracle demanded the expulsion of the unsolved murderer Lai from Thebes, Oedipus, in the process of clarifying the circumstances of the old crime, was able to establish whose son he was, whom he killed and with whom he was married. He gouged out his eyes with a golden clasp taken from the dress of the hanged Jocasta and was eventually expelled from Thebes. Antigone, devoted to him, despite all the shame that had opened up, volunteered to accompany the blind father. After long wanderings, Oedipus reaches the sacred grove of Eumenides in the Attic settlement of Colon, where, according to a long-standing prediction, he is destined to say goodbye to life. To Theseus who sheltered him, Oedipus reveals the secret that in the coming clashes of the Athenians with the Thebans, victory will belong to the side in whose land Oedipus will find his last refuge. Trying to drag Oedipus back to his homeland, Jocasta's brother Creon receives a stern rebuff from Theseus. Nor does Oedipus sympathize with Polynices, who appeared to him for a blessing in the struggle against his brother Eteocles: Oedipus curses both sons, who expelled him from Thebes, and predicts their mutual death in the coming battle. Thunderclaps make it clear to Oedipus that the rulers of the underworld are waiting for him. Led by some force from above, he himself finds a way to the place of his repose and allows only Theseus to be present at his painless death: Oedipus is swallowed up by the open earth, and the place where this happened remains an eternal secret, which Theseus has the right to pass on to his only before death. to the heir. In this version, the myth of Oedipus is known from the tragedies of Sophocles "Oedipus the King" and "Oedipus in Colon". Other sources have retained earlier or local versions of the myth. In one version of the myth, the parents do not throw Oedipus on Kiferon, but lower him into the sea in an ark, and the wave beats him to the shore near Corinth or Sikion; here the child is picked up by the wife of the local king, who is doing the laundry (Schol. Eur. Phoen. 26-28, Hyg. Fab. 66, 67). The way of saving Oedipus, as set forth by Sophocles (the transfer of the child from one shepherd to another), is an invention of the poet; according to other versions, Oedipus is found by shepherds (among whom he grows up) or a casual passer-by, i.e. people who do not know about the place of his birth. The circumstances of his meeting with Lai and his arrival in Thebes also differ significantly. According to one of the options, Oedipus goes in search of a team stolen from the Corinthian king, whom he considers his father, while he encounters an unfamiliar Lai and kills him, after which he returns safely to Polybus, removing the belt and sword from the murdered one. Subsequently, having already become the king of Thebes, Oedipus once drives with Jocasta past the place where the murder took place, informs his wife about it and shows the trophies taken then as proof. Jocasta recognizes in his new wife the murderer of the former, but does not reveal the secret to him, and even more does not suspect of Oedipus the once thrown son (Schol. Eur. Phoen. 1760). In this regard, the version in which the motive of heroic matchmaking is developed in relation to Oedipus is of particular importance: Creon, who remained the ruler of Thebes after the death of Lai, appoints the hand of the widowed queen along with the royal throne as a reward to the one who will rid the city of the Sphinx. This call is answered by Oedipus and defeats the monster in battle (Eur. Phoen. 45-52). A battle with the Sphinx in mental ability replaces the initial physical victory over her, probably not earlier than the 7th century. BC, in the heyday of moralizing genres and all kinds of riddles and folklore puzzles.

Variants of the legend about the origin of the children of Oedipus also differ significantly from the Sofokles' version. According to the Odyssey (XI 271-280), the gods soon discovered the secret of the incestuous marriage of Oedipus, as a result of which his mother (Homer calls her Epicasta) hanged herself, and Oedipus continued to reign in Thebes and died, pursued by the Erinyes. The second wife of Oedipus is the Attic author of the beginning. 6 c. BC. Ferecides (frg. 48) calls Evrigania and from this marriage produces the four children of Oedipus, mentioned above.

The initial core of the Oedipus myth should obviously be considered the most ancient folk motif about the battle between father and son, who did not recognize each other, in the same version in which the son defeats the father as a younger and stronger rival. This plot dates back to the period of matrilocal marriage, when the son cannot know his father, because he is brought up in the family of the mother, when he reaches maturity, he goes in search of his father, and, not recognizing him, enters into battle with him. On Greek soil, such a motive in its purest form is attested in the myth of the death of Odysseus in the battle with Telegon, his unrecognized son from Kirk; a variant of the same motive can be considered the death of Acrisius by the hand of his grandson Perseus, who grew up in a foreign land.

In the case of Oedipus, matrilocal marriage is replaced by raising an abandoned infant far from the place of birth, which ultimately leads to the same result; The usual in such cases posthumous “recognition” of the father in the above-mentioned variants of the myth of Oedipus corresponds to Jocasta's identification in Oedipus of the murderer of her first husband.

Lit.: Averintsev S.S., To the interpretation of the symbolism of the myth of Oedipus, in collection: Antiquity and modernity, M., 1972; Propp V.Ya., Oedipus in the light of folklore, in his book: Folklore and reality, M., 1976; Robert C., Oidipus, Bd. 1-2, B., 1915; Deubner L., Oedipusprobleme, B., 1942; Webster T.B.L., The tragedies of Euripides, L., 1967; Astier C., Le mythe d'Oedipe, P. 1974; Yarkho V.N., "Oedipus complex" and "Oedipus King" by Sophocles, "Voprosy literatury", 1978, no. 10.

V.N. Yarkho

The myth of Oedipus (also developed in ancient literature by Seneca in Oedipus and Statius in Thebaid) was the object of allegorical interpretation in medieval literature. Voltaire ("Oedipus"), Shelley ("Oedipus the king") and others turned to the image of Oedipus.

Myths of the peoples of the world. Encyclopedia. (In 2 volumes). Ch. ed. S.A. Tokarev. - M .: "Soviet Encyclopedia", 1982. Vol. II, p. 657-659.

And now Oedipus is one of the most popular and symbolic characters in ancient Greek myths about heroes. Homer already knew the sad story of Oedipus, knew that Oedipus's father, the Theban king Lai, received a terrible prediction about him and ordered the baby son to be abandoned with his legs tied in the uninhabited area of ​​the mountains of Cithaeron. Oedipus was miraculously saved and raised in Corinth. Having reached adulthood, he went to Thebes and on the way, in a narrow gorge, killed Lai, not knowing that he was his father. After that, Oedipus married Lai's widow, the beautiful Jocasta, not knowing that she was his mother. When the gods revealed this secret, Jocasta strangled herself, attaching a noose to a high crossbar, and the soul of Oedipus, the goddess of vengeance Erinia, was plunged into severe torment, and he gouged out his eyes. The myth of Oedipus said further that the entire race of this involuntary wicked was subjected to a curse, whose power destroyed generation after generation. Blind Oedipus was offended by his sons, Polynikos ("the quarreling one") and Eteocles. They did not give him the honorable share of the sacrificial meat, and Oedipus, in anger, doomed them to a mortal quarrel, saying: "Let them share their father's wealth with the sword." This came true. The strife between Eteocles and Polynices over inheritance was the reason for the March of the Seven to Thebes. The sons of Oedipus killed each other in this war.

All these details were already stated in the original, ancient legend. But the myth of Oedipus and his house was fully developed only in later times, in the works of Attic tragedians. They liked to take this myth based on the idea of ​​the omnipotence of fate and the fragility of human assumptions and hopes as the subject of poetic elaboration. But already before the tragedians, the legend was modified by the influence of Egyptian mythology: the monster Fix, who lived on Mount Fykyon and devastated its surroundings, was turned into the Sphinx - a winged creature with the body of a lion and the head of a woman. It offered passers-by a riddle and threw them all into the abyss, because no one could find the correct answer to it. Only Oedipus solved the riddle of the Sphinx, and then the monster itself threw itself off the cliff.

The myths of ancient Greece. Oedipus. The one who tried to comprehend the secret

All three major Attic tragedians - Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides - used the content of the myth of Oedipus and his children in their famous tragedies ("Seven Against Thebes" by Aeschylus, "Antigone", "King Oedipus" and "Oedipus in Colon" by Sophocles, "The Petitioner "Euripides). Each of them modified it according to the peculiarities of their views and character. But the main features of the legend are the same for them.

Lai, the Theban king, a descendant of the founder of Thebes, Cadmus, in the third generation, received a prediction from the Delphic oracle of the god Apollo that the son who would be born to him would kill his father, marry his mother, and these crimes would destroy his own family. Lai began to avoid his wife Jocasta, without explaining to her the reasons for this. Disgruntled Jocasta made her husband drunk, persuaded him to love pleasures and soon gave birth to a son. Wanting to prevent the fulfillment of the prophecy he had received, Lai pierced the baby's ankles with nails and ordered him to be thrown on Mount Kiferon. But the boy was found and saved by a shepherd who named him Oedipus ("with swollen legs"). The shepherd took Oedipus to Corinth, where he was taken up by the childless king Polybus and his wife Peribeia. The royal family passed off Oedipus for their own son, without telling anyone that he was an adopted son.

However, when Oedipus grew up, the Corinthians began to notice that he did not resemble either Polybus or Peribey. Various rumors began to circulate in the city about this. The young man Oedipus became interested in the true circumstances of his birth and went to Delphi to ask the oracle if he was really the son of King Polybus. “Get out of the sanctuary, wretch! - the priestess-pythia, who saw Oedipus, cried in horror. "You will kill your father and marry your mother!"

Deciding that this prediction refers to Polybus and Peribaeus, Oedipus decided not to return to Corinth and wandered towards his true homeland - Thebes. At the crossroads of two roads (along Sophocles, in the Parnassian Schist - a gorge through which the road from Delphi to the south went; along Aeschylus, at Potnias, near Thebes), he met his real father, the Theban king Lai, who was riding in a chariot. Taking Oedipus for an ordinary commoner, Lai rudely demanded that he give way. The proud youth refused, and the driver Laya drove the wheel over his leg. Oedipus, in a rage, pierced the driver with a spear and began to lash the horses. They carried it. Lai tried to jump from the chariot, but got entangled in the harness. The distraught horses dragged him along the ground, and Oedipus's father died.

Sphinx. Detail of the painting by F.C. Fabre. Late 18th - early 19th centuries

Lai went to Delphi to ask the oracle how to get rid of the Sphinx, a monster that flew to his kingdom from Ethiopia and killed many people. The Sphinx (or rather, the Sphinx, for this monster was female) was the daughter of the terrible Typhon and Echidna and had the body of a lion, the head of a woman, the tail of a snake and the wings of an eagle. He was sent to Thebes by the goddess Hera because King Lai illegally kidnapped Chrysippus, the son of the hero Pelops. Nesting near Thebes, on Mount Fykion, the Sphinx asked all the travelers who followed a riddle: "Which living creature walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?" People could not figure it out - for this the Sphinx threw them into the abyss, and then devoured them. Many Thebans have already died from him, including the handsome Gemon, the son of Creon, the brother of Lai's wife, the mother of Oedipus, Jocasta. Creon, who became the ruler of Thebes after the death of Laius, announced that whoever liberates the country from the Sphinx will be made king of Thebes and receive the hand of the widow Jocasta.

Oedipus and the Sphinx. Painting by Gustave Moreau, 1864

Oedipus went to the place where the Sphinx lived and gave the correct answer to its riddle: a man crawls on all fours in infancy (during the morning of life), walks on two legs in adulthood and three in old age, when he needs a stick. After the riddle of the Sphinx was solved, the monster threw itself down the mountain and crashed to death. The triumphant Thebans proclaimed Oedipus their king. He married Jocasta, not suspecting that she was his mother. Oedipus did not know that the one he had killed on the road was the Theban king Lai.

Oedipus and the Sphinx. Painting by J. A. D. Ingres, 1808-1825

According to the myth, the married life of Oedipus and Jocasta lasted for many years. They had several children. But suddenly a pestilence began in Thebes. The citizens turned to the greatest Greek prophet, Tiresias of Thebes, asking him to tell what caused the disaster and how to get rid of it. Arriving at the palace of Oedipus, Tiresias announced to him that he was the murderer of his father, King Lai, and the husband of his own mother, Jocasta. The plague was sent by the gods to Thebes as punishment for this incest. Jocasta strangled herself from sadness and shame. Oedipus blinded himself with a golden fastener removed from her clothes, and voluntarily retired from Thebes into exile.

Antigone brings blind Oedipus out of Thebes. Painting by Jalaber, 1842

Even earlier, Oedipus was angry with his own sons from Jocasta, Eteocles and Polynices, who sent him a piece of meat from a sacrificial animal unworthy of the king: a thigh instead of the scapula he had been supposed to. They say that in anger he pronounced a curse, wishing that Eteocles and Polynices share with the sword their heritage from him - the Theban kingdom. According to another version of the myth, Oedipus cursed his sons for leaving him after his expulsion from Thebes, when he, a blind beggar, did not find shelter anywhere. The support of Oedipus in his difficult wanderings were his daughters, Antigone and Ismene, who went everywhere with their father. Blind Oedipus was terribly tormented by the goddess of vengeance, Erinia. They aroused in the elder the pangs of conscience for the previous iniquities, although Oedipus committed all of them involuntarily. After many years of suffering, Oedipus came to the Attic place of Colon, near which was the Erinius grove with the "copper threshold" - the entrance to the underworld of Hades. In this grove, the Erinias were finally reconciled with Oedipus. His mental anguish subsided. The gods, out of respect for the suffering endured by Oedipus, forgave his sins, and he died in Colon, filled with blissful tranquility.

Oedipus at Colon. Harriet's painting, 1798

His sons Eteocles and Polynices were already at war with each other because of the dominion over Thebes. The oracle announced that the king would be the one of the two brothers who would own the coffin of their father, Oedipus. Polynices, expelled from the city by Eteocles, wanted shortly before the death of Oedipus to take him from Colon to himself, but this was not allowed by the great hero Theseus, who then ruled Athens. This is how Sophocles portrays the fate of Oedipus, following the ancient Attic tradition that he died in Colon, and imbuing his lofty moral and religious concepts into the legend. The broken life of Oedipus was Sophocles' example of divine justice, which mercilessly punishes all sin, and the blessed death of Oedipus inspired the reassuring thought that the anger of the underground deities was mitigated by suffering and repentance.

The daughters of Oedipus, Antigone and Ismene, returned to Thebes and tried to reconcile their brothers, but they did not listen to them. The enmity between Eteocles and Polynices led to the March of the Seven Heroes to Thebes, the death of both sons of Oedipus, who killed each other in a duel, and the tragic death of Antigone.

After the departure of Oedipus, the Theban throne was occupied by Creon for the second time, as the ruler of the country for his young sons, Polynices and Eteocles. But when they grew up, he handed over power to them. They did not live in peace for long: Eteocles, more active and dexterous, expelled his older brother. He, feeling offended, turned to the Argos king Adrast for help. Adrast was just camped in front of his city. Before entering the camp, Polynices ran into another stranger, the same exile as himself. It was at night, and naturally they had a quarrel, and then a duel. The royal guard separated them.

Like wild beasts fighting over a den! - reported to the king.

The king went out to them. Recognizing both princes - the other was Tydeus, expelled from Aetolia by the enemies of his father - Adrastus remembered the oracle, who advised him to marry his daughters to a boar and a lion. He received them hospitably and married his daughters. But, of course, not so that they would eat his bread all their lives as exiles: he wanted to consolidate their power, so that they would then become his reliable allies. He decided first to return the Theban throne to Polynice, and then to Tydeus the Calydonian throne. Sister Adrasta Erifila was married to the Argonaut Amphiaraus. Ardent and domineering Adrast did not always get along with this son-in-law. In order to prevent a disagreement, they had an agreement so that all quarrels between them would be resolved by the equally respected Erifila.

Deciding to undertake a campaign against Thebes, Adrast began to collect heroes. Proud Capaneus, the mighty Hippomedont, the young and beautiful Parthenopai agreed. But Adrastus valued most of all the participation in the campaign of his son-in-law, the Argonaut Amphiaraus, and it was he who did not manage to persuade. According to Amphiaraus, Polynices was right, perhaps against Eteocles, but he was certainly wrong against his homeland.

No truth justifies the blow inflicted on the mother, he said, and the gods will not send victory to falsehood.

In view of his persistence, Polynices decided to use a last resort. Leaving Thebes, he managed to take with him the legacy of his mother, the Necklace of Harmony. He now offered it to Erifile. The soul of a woman could not resist the shine of semi-precious stones in a gold setting; Called to judge between husband and brother, she decided that the husband should submit to the brother.

Amphiaraus was twisted: he knew that his wife had betrayed him, he knew that she was sending him to death, and, what was most difficult for his just heart, to death in an unjust deed. But there was nothing to do: by virtue of the agreement, he had to obey. Before going on a campaign, he summoned his young son Alcmeon to him and told him that he was going to certain death and that his killer was Erifila. Alcmaeon remembered his words.

Amphiarai was the seventh of the heroes to march against Thebes; the rest were Adrastus, Polyneices with Tydeus, and the above three: Capaneus, Hippomedon and Parthenopai. This campaign is called the campaign of the Seven against Thebes. After the Calydonian hunt and the Argonauts' campaign, this was the third major Hellenic business. The army moved from Argos, rising from the plain to the mountains; passed the harsh Mycenaean stronghold - and now the blessed Nemea, the grove of Zeus, opened up in front of him on the hill. Ahead, in an all-seeing place, is his temple, further there is a small village, and between the temple and the village there is a modest courtyard of the abbot of the temple, the God-fearing priest of Lycurgus. All this was known in advance to Amphiaraus, according to the custom in charge of the ritual of the campaign. When an army moves to another area, a sacrifice is required, and for a sacrifice, running water is required. Who will indicate her in the "thirsty" Argolis? Most likely this is a woman who, with a child in her arms, leaves Likurgov's house. Amphiarai approaches her - gods, what is this? In the modest attire of a slave in front of him stands the affectionate mistress of the Argonauts, the queen of Lemnos Gipsipila.

They have lost sight of her since the departure of the Argonauts from the island of Lemnos. In the beginning, everything went well for Gipsipila. She became the mother of two twins. One she named Eunaeus, that is, "beautiful ship", in memory of the ship of his father Jason, and the other - by the name of her own father - Foant. But then disaster struck: when she was alone on the shore, she was attacked by sea robbers, taken away, sold into slavery - and now she serves Eurydice, the wife of Lycurgus, and nurses their baby son Ophelet. She told all this to Amphiaraus and added that Lycurgus was away, only Eurydice was at home, and two young men who had come just today on a business unknown to her. She did not immediately agree to fulfill the request of Amfiarai to indicate the source to them. She would be glad to serve her old acquaintance and the Argonaut, but what about the child? After some hesitation, she decided to take him with her - and if the mistress gets angry with her for her willful absence, let Amphiarai help her out. Madam! Get angry! Who is she - a slave or a Lemnos queen? No matter how fate broke her, today, in front of this argonaut, she feels like the old Gypsipila. So let's go!

Coming: he, she, and several other soldiers with buckets. The path winds through a mountain gorge, through potholes and gullies. It is difficult for her with a child in her arms. But here is the green herb, all fragrant with thyme. The key is already close, but you still have to jump over the boulders and decks. Let Ophelet sit in the grass in the sun, without him it will be easier for her. Here is the key. The soldiers scooped up as much water as they needed, you can return. Now there will be a meadow in which she left the boy on the grass among the thyme. No matter how stung by a bee! .. What is this? Where is the boy? Ophelet! Oflet! .. Gods! A huge snake escapes into the distance along the dry bed of a winter stream, and in the convolutions of its body, with its head overturned and helplessly raised arms, its pet, the joy of its parents, Ophelet! Amphiarai sees him, he has already thrown a dart - the monster is struck to death, the rings are slowly opening ... Too late! The departed soul will not return to the little body.

Again Gipsipila with a child in her arms. Lonely, sadly she wanders home. And in my thoughts confusion: "We must bring the mistress her murdered son ... Is it necessary? After all, Ophelet cannot be resurrected, but for the death of a child a slave is executed! But you can be saved: Amfiarai was staying with me on Lemnos, bound with me by the sacred bonds of hospitality. dead child on the threshold of the house and leave before it's too late! your child is killed, and the cause of his death, albeit involuntary, is me. "

She went to Eurydice, brought her a dead child. Eurydice is in despair: joy is lost, hope at home is lost! But despair gives way to anger. One consolation in grief is revenge on its culprit. She won't deny herself it! And the boy's soul will be easier if his offender also suffers. Gypsypila will be executed. She will be executed immediately!

Gypsypila is taken to execution. Eurydice herself wants to be her witness. But now the Argos visitor, Amphiarai, comes up to her. He brings her the decree of the Seven. Gypsypila was not the culprit of the child's death - the gods wanted to send a formidable sign to the entire campaign. There will be no victory for us, we will not be able to share the spoils of the city, we will not have to celebrate a joyful return to our own. Ophelet, the bearer of the sign, is no longer Ophelet, a simple deceased child - he is now Archemoros, "the beginning of fate" awaiting the participants in the ill-fated campaign. The gods honored him with the introduction to the face of "heroes", honored not by families, but by communities and peoples. "Consolation in revenge"? No, Eurydice - the highest consolation in beauty. The beauty of the Nemean Games, established today in honor of Archemor, established for all time, will glorify both your son and the grief of your loss.

Eurydice warmly shook the hand of her guest. As a true Hellenic woman, she understood and appreciated the meaning of the words "consolation in beauty." Immediately, the trumpet signaled the beginning of the funeral games in honor of Archemor. Eurydice, replacing her absent husband, was sitting on the platform, with bliss Amphiaraus and the rest of the Seven. No matter how grieved her heart was, she nevertheless felt pride at the thought that henceforth young men from all over Hellas would gather here for the sake of a victorious wreath, honoring her son, the untimely deceased Ophelet-Archemor.

Kog
Yes, the sun began to decline, the games were over: a new trumpet signal reminded the audience that the distribution of wreaths to the winners would begin. And then the herald stepped forward: "Eunius, son of Jason, from Mirina of Lemnos! He won the race! Foant, son of Jason, from Mirina of Lemnos! He won in discus throwing ..."

Gipsipila did not hear the rest. Her eyes dimmed. Eneas, Foantes, the sons of Jason - her sons! Where are they from? Where are they? Here they enter the platform, here Eurydice crowns one, then another with a green wreath. Gods! Why, these are the young men whom she herself brought into the house of Lycurgus! Her sons ... are they authentic? Or is it the evil mockery of the unforgiving gods? She stands, not taking her eyes off these young handsome men: joy and doubt are fighting in her soul.

Sunset. The spectators dispersed - some to the camp, some to the posad. Eurydice also went to her place: she forgave the slave, but she does not want to live with her, she cannot - this is so understandable! Amphiarai with both young men approaches her:

Eunius, Foant, here's your second and highest reward: hug your mother!

To embrace! Oh, how willingly ... Only they see her doubt - is it her sons smiling at her?

Let's calm you down, dear! On the shoulder we both have a speck of gold in the form of a vine. This is the sign of Dionysus the ancestor for all his offspring.

Yes, now there is no doubt! The gods have returned my sons! But where should we go?

Of course, to my homeland, to Mirina Lemnos. There the female kingdom has already ceased, Foantes the First rules again. He sent us to look for you. The tests are over, there is cloudless happiness ahead.

So, in spite of everything, Jason's house blossomed on distant Lemnos, and his body lay in an unknown grave, under the golden idol of Hera, among the ruins of his wonderful ship.

Oedipus, Greek - the son of the Theban king Lai and his wife Jocasta, one of the most tragic heroes of Greek myths and dramas.

Oedipus owes his fame, first of all, to Sophocles, who, using ancient Theban legends, in two of his tragedies created the image of Oedipus with unsurpassed skill, thanks to which Oedipus remains one of the greatest figures in Greek and world drama even today. Oedipus in the interpretation of Sophocles reminds us of the eternal impermanence of human happiness and appears as proof of the inevitability of fate, which inspires horror - true, only as long as we do not remember with relief that we do not believe in fate.

The tragic fate of the king's son Oedipus

The fate of Oedipus was predetermined by a terrible curse brought on by his father Lai, who kidnapped the young Chrysippus, the son of the Elide king Pelop, and became the cause of his death. This curse was supposed to haunt the Lai clan until the third generation, and its first victim was to become Lai himself, doomed to fall at the hands of his own son. Therefore, when a son was born to Lai, he ordered the slave to throw him in the forest on the slopes of Kiferon so that wild animals would tear him to pieces. To be more faithful, he pierced his legs at the ankles and tied them with a belt. But the slave took pity on the child and gave him to a shepherd who he met by chance in the forest, and the shepherd brought the boy to his master, the childless Corinthian king Polybus. Polybus adopted the boy, gave him the name Oedipus (more precisely, Oidipus, that is, with swollen legs) and, together with his wife Merope, raised him as befits the heir to the throne. Oedipus, of course, considered Polybus and Merope to be his parents - and everything was in the best order, until a drunken Corinthian youth called Oedipus a foundling. Oedipus told Polybus and Merope about this, and from their reaction he guessed that they were hiding the truth from him. Then he went to Delphi to find out from the oracle how, in fact, things are with his origin. However, the pythia did not say anything to Oedipus about his past, but predicted the future to him: he would kill his father, marry his own mother, and she would give him sons, whom he would curse, wishing them death.

Shaken Oedipus decided to do everything to prevent the prophecy from coming true. The Oracle did not tell him the names of his parents, which means that they could well have been Polybus and Merope. In this case, Oedipus could not return to them - and he chose to remain a rootless vagabond, so long as not to endanger the lives of his parents. But can a person escape his fate? Oedipus did not return to Corinth and went the direct route - to Thebes.

Oedipus in Thebes: killing a father, marrying a mother

In a narrow gorge near Parnassus, Oedipus met a chariot, on which sat some noble old man. Oedipus made way, but this seemed not enough to the charioteer, he rudely ordered Oedipus to go into the roadside ditch and, for greater persuasiveness, whipped him with a whip. Oedipus responded with blow for blow and wanted to continue on his way, but then a worthy old man stood up and hit him with his staff. With all due respect to the gray hair, Oedipus could not resist and answered him in kind - unfortunately, the blow was too strong and the elder died on the spot. His companions pounced on Oedipus, but he killed them all, with the exception of one slave who escaped at the very beginning of the battle. The first part of the prophecy came true: an unfamiliar old man killed by Oedipus was his father Lai, who was heading to Delphi to ask the oracle how to save Thebes from the monstrous Sphinx. Instead of Lai, a slave returned to Thebes, reporting that the king had died at the hands of robbers.

Arriving in Thebes, Oedipus delivered the city from the monster, as described in the article "Sphinx". The grateful Thebans proclaimed him their king, since the brother of Queen Jocasta, Creon, announced after the death of Lai that the one who would deliver Thebes from the Sphinx would become king. Oedipus settled in the royal palace and married Jocasta. Everything went exactly as the prophecy predicted: Jocasta bore him two daughters, Antigone and, and two sons, Eteocles and Polynices.

Exposing Oedipus

In the twentieth year of the successful reign of Oedipus, a pestilence plague began to rage in Thebes, accompanied by a crop failure. At the request of Oedipus, Creon went to Delphi to find out how to get rid of this calamity, and brought the answer to the Pythia: the Thebans must expel from their midst, which brought the punishment of the gods on the city.

But for that, the killer had to be found. Oedipus turned to the blind soothsayer Tiresias, but he flatly refused to give the name of the murderer, although he did not deny that he knew it. Oedipus asked, persuaded, threatened, but the blind old man was relentless. Finally, yielding to the insistence of the people and the threats of Oedipus, Tiresias declared: “So know, Oedipus, that you are the murderer of your father! And you, out of ignorance, married your own mother! "

Tiresias's calm confidence alarmed Oedipus. He summoned Jocasta to him, repeated the words of Tiresias to her and asked if Lai had a son and could he return to Thebes, as the prophecy claims? Yes, answered Jocasta, she gave birth to a son to Lai, but Lai ordered to carry the child to the forest, fearing the prophecy. The slave who took the child to be eaten by wild animals is still alive and can confirm her words.

The need for evidence indicates uncertainty: Oedipus sent for a slave. As soon as the servants left for him, an ambassador from Corinth appeared with the news of the death of King Polybus. In the soul of Oedipus, sorrow mingled with joy. He did not kill his father, escaped his fate - which means that other prophecies may turn out to be false!

The tragedy of Oedipus, Jocasta and their children

This was the last happy moment in the life of Oedipus, as the ambassador continued: the people of Corinth are inviting him to take the throne of Polybus, and so that he does not fear the prophecy given to him, Merope tells him to tell him that he is not her son and Polybus at all. Oedipus is a foundling, whom the slave of King Laius handed over to the Corinthian shepherd, who gave him to Polybus. At that moment I understood everything. With a terrible cry, she rushed into her bedroom and took her own life.

Before Oedipus had time to recover from this blow, another one followed. The slave brought in admitted that he had not followed Lai's order and had indeed given the newborn to the shepherd of King Polybus. He was the same companion of King Lai, who survived after the fatal skirmish in the gorge near Parnassus, when Oedipus accidentally killed his father. Out of himself with despair, Oedipus rushed into Jocasta's bedroom and found his wife and mother already dead. Oedipus pulled the gold pin out of Jocasta's dress and gouged out his eyes. He did not want to see the sunlight, which would show him the full depth of his fall, did not want to see either his children or his native Thebes anymore. In the struggle with fate, he lost everything, including hope.

The Theban people deeply sympathized with the tragedy of Oedipus, but this did not last long, since the hunger did not stop. People who had recently respected Oedipus for his wisdom, justice, and services to the city began to demand that he leave Thebes. Creon alone protected him and provided shelter in his palace. Finally, Oedipus was opposed by his own sons, Eteocles and Polynices, who were eager for power, and. He shared power with them, and Oedipus sent them into exile as a man hated by the gods, bringing trouble to society.

Under the blows of fate and human ingratitude, the blind, helpless Oedipus reached the very bottom of the abyss of humiliation. Accompanied by his daughter Antigone, who voluntarily followed him into exile, Oedipus wandered for a long time through the forests and mountains, since people abhorred him and the cities refused to accept him. Finally Oedipus came to Colon near Athens and made a halt in the forest, away from human dwellings. From the villagers, he learned that he was in the sacred grove of Eumenides, the pacified goddesses of vengeance. Oedipus accepted this news with relief, since he knew that here he was destined to leave this world - once Apollo in Delphi announced this to him. He recalled the further words of Apollo: the one who provides him with the last refuge and consolation will be rewarded a hundredfold. Therefore, Oedipus asked the peasants to bring him from Athens.

Meanwhile, the youngest daughter of Oedipus, Ismena, came to Colon and informed him that his sons had become implacable enemies. Eteocles, in alliance with Creon, expelled Polynices, who united with the Argives and led a formidable army under Thebes. Both camps want to win Oedipus over to their side, since the Delphic pythia announced that the one on whose side Oedipus will be victorious in the struggle for Thebes. After Ismena, Creon appeared, then Polynices, but Oedipus did not give in to either their requests or threats. In the end, he cursed his sons with a terrible oath, wishing them to kill each other.

Death of Oedipus

As soon as Oedipus uttered the words of the curse, there was a thunderclap. It was a sign of the supreme guardian of fate, Olympian Zeus, that Oedipus could descend into the kingdom of shadows. Oedipus said goodbye to his daughters and summoned Theseus to him. He took an oath from the Athenian king to take care of Ismen, and as a reward for this good deed, he revealed to him the secret of the location of his grave, which would protect Athens more reliably than shields and city walls. Oedipus calmly said goodbye to the world and imperceptibly for all went into the gloomy, on the threshold of which the life of a mortal and his fate ceases.

“Not a single work of ancient drama has left such a noticeable mark on the history of European drama as Oedipus the Tsar,” said the Soviet historian of ancient literature I. M. Troisky, and almost all literary critics agree with him. This is a truly magnificent work, incomparable in its simplicity and monumentality, characteristics of images, compactness and dynamism of action, a work that is as exciting today as it was millennia ago. Sophocles created the "King of Oedipus" in 429-425. BC NS.; he later returned to the Oedipus theme in the equally famous Oedipus at Colon, which he did not live to see (Sophocles died in 406 BC). Before him, the motives from the myth of Oedipus were developed by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey (Jocasta is called Epicasta), then the unknown author of Oedipodea - the first of three (or more) large poems of the so-called Theban cycle, then Aeschylus in tragedies "Lay" and "Oedipus", which, unfortunately, did not reach us. Of the Roman authors, the tragedy "Oedipus" was composed by Seneca (and in his youth and Caesar).

The image of Oedipus in world art

Like other images of the tragedies of Sophocles (Antigone, Electra), Oedipus prompted the authors of modern times to numerous adaptations and reworkings of the story about his fate: Oedipus by Corneille and Voltaire, Oedipus in Athens by V. Ozerov (1804), the satirical drama Tsar Shelley's Oedipus (1820), Hoffmannsthal's Oedipus and the Sphinx (1906), Cocteau's Oedipus King, A. Gide's Oedipus (1931), R. Bayer's Oedipus in Colon (1946). The story was used by Oedipus in his novel "Rubber Bands" by Robbe-Grillet (1953), the film "Oedipus the King" was directed by Pasolini (1967).

Ancient artists most willingly depicted Oedipus and the Sphinx. Large frescoes with Oedipus themes have been found in the ruins of ancient Hermopolis on the Nile (dated to the beginning of our era). Among the paintings of European artists, let us name two, created in the 19th century: "Oedipus and the Sphinx" by Ingres (1827) and the painting of the same name by G. Moreau.

The fate of Oedipus has also inspired a number of composers. The opera Oedipus the King was written by Leoncavallo, the opera Oedipus and the Sphinx (to the text of Hoffmannsthal) by R. Strauss, the opera Oedipus by Enescu (1931), the stage work Oedipus King by Orff (1959). The stage music for Sophocles' Oedipus in the Colon was created by Mendelssohn-Bartholdi (1845), the opera-oratorio Oedipus the King was created by Stravinsky (1927). Among the works of Czech composers, the parody operetta Oedipus King by Kovarzovic (1894) with its unconventional interpretation deserves attention.

Oedipus complex and more

A whole literature has arisen about Sophocles' "King Oedipus", and in this connection we will allow ourselves a small remark. The magnificence of this work led cultural historians (especially in the 18th and 19th centuries) to over-generalize. Since Sophocles' "King Oedipus" is a "tragedy of fate", they often summed up the entire ancient tragedy under this definition, opposing it, for example, with Shakespeare's "tragedy of character." In reality, however, the creators of ancient tragedies developed the theme of fate relatively rarely. Allegations that the axis of this tragedy of Sophocles is the problem of the son's painful love for his mother are also exaggerated, because Oedipus, by the way, did not even know that Jocasta was his mother. The so-called "Oedipus complex" is only a category of modern psychology or psychoanalysis.

Stills of the film "King Oedipus" (Italy, 1967)

Before the birth of Oedipus, the oracle predicted that he was destined to kill his father and become the husband of his own mother. Laia, king of Thebes, pierced his son's feet and ordered him to be left to die in the wilderness.
But the child did not die. The shepherd picked up the child and took it to Corinth, where the king Polyb and his wife Merope, being childless, they adopted and raised Oedipus as their own son. And the boy considered them to be his parents. And when the young man became a warrior and learned about what was predicted to him, he did not hesitate for a minute to leave Corinth, so as not to bring misfortune to those whom he loved with all his heart, and went to Thebes. In a gorge at the crossroads of three roads, a certain old man insulted a young man; angry Oedipus killed him. It was Lai, king of Thebes, his father. Without knowing it, Oedipus fulfilled the first part of the destiny.
Great despondency took possession of Thebes: the king died, and the surroundings were devastated by the Sphinx.

Sphinx- a winged monster with a lion's body and a woman's head, the offspring of Orff, Kerber's twin brother. (In all literary works, it is referred to as a male being, but in the images it has a clearly female body)

The Sphinx asked the same riddle to all passers-by, and killed those who did not give the correct answer. Nobody could guess this riddle. To save the city, Oedipus went to the Sphinx. The monster asked: "Who walks on four legs in the morning, on two in the afternoon, and on three legs in the evening?" "Man" - answered Oedipus, finding the right solution. And the Sphinx threw himself off a cliff into the sea, for it was decided by the gods that he would die if someone solved his riddle.
So Oedipus freed Thebes from the monster. For this act, Oedipus was proclaimed king of Thebes and received the reigning widow Jocasta as a wife. He had two daughters by her Antigone and Ismenu, and two sons, Eteocles and Polynice... Avoiding prediction, he fulfilled it.
The truth was revealed to him a few years later, when a great pestilence attacked the kingdom of the paricide and incest. The soothsayer Tiresias revealed to him why such a punishment was sent down. Jocasta could not bear all the horror that opened before her and committed suicide. Distraught with grief, Oedipus blinded himself. The Thebans drove him out of the country, and the former king, accompanied by his daughter Antigone, left to wander in foreign lands.

Oedipus in Athens

After long wanderings, Oedipus finally came to Attica, to the city of Athens. There he asked for shelter from the then ruling city of Theseus. In Athens, the daughter of Ismene found him in order to convey the sad news: the sons of Oedipus first ruled together in Thebes. But the youngest son, Eteocles, seized power alone and expelled Polynices from Thebes. Polynices went to Argos, found help there and now goes with an army against Thebes. The Oracle in Delphi is the victory on whose side Oedipus will be. Creon soon appeared, brother of Jocasta, who ruled with Eteocles. He tried to persuade Oedipus to return with him to Thebes, but he refused. Then Creon decided to seize Oedipus by force, but the Athenians, under whose protection the unfortunate elder was, did not allow him to do this. Polynices, who arrived from Argos, tried to persuade his father to his side, but Oedipus cursed his sons, who expelled him.
Oedipus died in the sacred grove of Eumenides, finding rest only in death.

Genealogy:

Cadmus and Harmony: in this branch appears the origin of Oedipus and his children from Jocasta.
The beginning of time: and in this branch you can see the origin of the Sphinx, which belongs to the oldest generation of gods.