King Oedipus

King Oedipus

King Oedipus' life was very unfortunate, besides being King of Thebes. The King himself did not do anything wrong throughout his life, but when he was called upon by the Thebans to save the city from a plague his life fell apart.

King Oedipus tried to find out what killed Laius the King before he came to power, because the oracle told them that his murder needed to leave to free the city from disease. So the King used Creon to find men he needed to speak with in order to find out who killed Laius. King Oedipus did whatever he could to find out who killed Laius which was why he was thought of as a good king. I thought that he tried hard to help the people of Thebes, but it would come to haunt him in the future. Oedipus' wife Jocasta tells him where Laius was killed; she said it was at crossroads were Oedipus remembers killing a few men that were bothering him on the way to Thebes. Jocasta dreads telling Oedipus about the crossroads because without this information I believe Oedipus would never have found out the truth and would have given up his search. Oedipus then realizes that he was most likely the one to kill Laius.

Oedipus brings in one of the Shepard's, the only one to survive the killing of Laius to see if he would recognize him. Ironically this was the same Shepard that Oedipus encounters later in the story. There was a prophecy about Oedipus that said he would kill his father and sleep with his mother. Later that day Oedipus received news that his father, Polybus was dead. He overjoyed but later found out by that Shepard that he was a foster child born from the House of Laius. Oedipus then realized he had killed his mother and slept with his father. I believe Jocasta found out he was his son when a messenger said another shepherd, Laius's servant, gave him baby Oedipus. Jocasta then tried to stop Oedipus