The Prophecy of Laius
Laius learns that a son born to him will kill his father, setting in motion the attempt to destroy the infant Oedipus.
The Story
Laius was king of Thebes and husband of Jocasta.
A prophecy warned that a son born to Laius would kill his own father.
The warning placed the royal family under an immediate threat.
When Jocasta gave birth to a son, Laius attempted to prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled.
The infant was marked through the feet or ankles and handed away to be exposed.
The child was meant to die.
But Oedipus survived.
He was carried away from Thebes and eventually raised in Corinth by King Polybus and Queen Merope.
Oedipus grew up believing that the Corinthian rulers were his biological parents.
The attempt to prevent the prophecy therefore created the conditions that made its fulfilment possible.
Laius did not know that the child he had tried to destroy was still alive.
Oedipus did not know that the parents he feared harming were not his birth parents.
When Oedipus later learned a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother, he left Corinth specifically to protect Polybus and Merope.
His attempt to avoid fate led him directly back toward the family from which he had been separated.
Key Figures
Why It Matters
The prophecy of Laius establishes the mechanism behind the entire Oedipus cycle: each attempt to escape the prediction helps bring it closer to fulfilment.
Traditions & Variations
Ancient sources vary over the wording of the oracle, who exposes the child, who receives him and the identities of Oedipus' foster parents. Polybus and Merope belong to the most familiar later form of the tradition.