Hero
Oedipus
Οἰδίπους
Overview
King of Thebes who unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother.
Generation
Heroic Age
Symbols
Sphinx, crossroads
Beyond Antiquity
Modern Legacy
Oedipus still appears in the modern world through language, science, medicine, astronomy or culture.
Oedipus Complex
Today: A concept associated with Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory.
Freud took the name from Oedipus, whose tragedy centres on his unwitting killing of his father and marriage to his mother.
Explore Oedipus in psychology →Related Myths
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The Prophecy of Laius
Infant whose survival allows the prophecy to continue -
Oedipus at the Crossroads
Traveller who unknowingly kills his father -
Oedipus and the Sphinx
Solves the Sphinx's riddle -
The Tragedy of Oedipus
Central tragic figure -
Seven Against Thebes
Father of Eteocles and Polynices whose conflict follows his fall