The Cursed Lineage of Cadmus

The story of Oedipus begins not with his birth, but with the troubled legacy of the House of Cadmus, founder of Thebes. After the deaths of Amphion and Zethus, Thebes convened to elect a new king, choosing Laius, son of Labdacus, due to his direct descent from Cadmus. Labdacus’ lineage was fraught with tragedy—his father, Polydorus, was Cadmus’ illegitimate son, hidden from the usurper Nycteus to protect the royal bloodline. The gods seemed to curse Cadmus’ descendants: Labdacus died young, leaving Laius as the sole heir.

Laius spent his youth in exile, serving King Pelops of Elis, until Thebes recalled him to reclaim his ancestral throne. He married Jocasta, daughter of the noble Menoeceus, and ruled peacefully—until a dire prophecy from the Oracle of Delphi shattered his complacency: “Beware, King Laius! Do not father a child, for your firstborn shall kill you.”

The Abandonment of Oedipus

Despite the warning, Laius fathered a son with Jocasta. Panicked, he ordered a servant to abandon the infant on Mount Cithaeron, his ankles pierced with a spike (hence the name Oedipus, meaning “swollen foot”). Yet fate intervened: a compassionate shepherd delivered the child to Polybus, King of Corinth, who raised him as his own.

Oedipus grew into a brilliant young man, but a drunken taunt at a banquet revealed his uncertain origins. Seeking answers, he consulted the Oracle, only to receive a horrifying echo of Laius’ prophecy: “You will kill your father and marry your mother.” Resolving to defy destiny, Oedipus fled Corinth—unaware that his path would lead him straight to Thebes.

The Crossroads of Fate

At a mountain crossroads, Oedipus encountered a haughty nobleman (Laius, unrecognized) and his retinue. A violent clash ensued, and Oedipus slew them all—fulfilling the first half of the prophecy. Meanwhile, Thebes languished under the terror of the Sphinx, a winged monster who devoured youths unable to solve her riddle:

“What walks on four legs at dawn, two at noon, and three at dusk?”

Oedipus, undaunted, confronted the Sphinx. His answer—”Man” (crawling as a baby, walking upright in adulthood, leaning on a staff in old age)—destroyed the beast, freeing Thebes. As reward, he was crowned king and married the widowed Jocasta, his biological mother.

The Unraveling of a Kingdom

For years, Oedipus ruled wisely, unaware of his true lineage. When a plague struck Thebes, the Oracle revealed the city harbored Laius’ killer. Through relentless investigation—aided by the blind prophet Tiresias and the shepherd who spared Oedipus as a baby—the horrifying truth emerged. Jocasta hanged herself; Oedipus gouged out his eyes and exiled himself, leaving Thebes to his sons, Eteocles and Polynices, whose rivalry would spark the Seven Against Thebes war.

Legacy: The Paradox of Free Will

The Oedipus myth endures as a meditation on fate versus agency. Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex immortalized the king as a tragic hero whose attempts to outwit prophecy only cemented it. Freud later reinterpreted the story as the “Oedipus complex,” framing it as a universal psychological struggle.

Modern adaptations—from Stravinsky’s opera to Pasolini’s film—continue to explore its themes of identity, power, and the limits of human knowledge. Thebes’ cursed dynasty reminds us that even the mightiest cannot escape the consequences of pride—or the inscrutable designs of the gods.

The riddle of the Sphinx, once a literal test, now symbolizes life’s greatest questions: Who are we? Can we escape our past? And what does it mean to truly see our own nature? Oedipus’ story, millennia old, still demands an answer.