LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Oedipus: King Laius
built 655 days ago
Oedipus consulted the blind seer, Teiresias, and questioned the shepherd and bodyguard. Teiresias was reluctant to tell the truth. Gradually, Oedipus found out that Polybus wasn't his real father, nor that was Merope was his mother. They had adopted him from the shepherd. From the shepherd, he learned that his father was Laius, and he was left to die in the wild.
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Creon comes in, incensed that Oedipus would accuse him of trying to smear him. The Chorus says Oedipus is simply angry. Creon says he must be nuts. The Chorus says that to the king's faults and misbehavior, they are blind. ("See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" -- the norm in a non-democracy.) Oedipus comes in and accuses Creon directly of planning a coup, using a smear by a crooked psychic as an excuse. They exchange angry words.
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Jocasta, Oedipus' wife, comforts him, reminding him of reports that Laius was killed by thieves at a crossroads. Her son, she tells him, had been abandoned on a mountainside at birth to thwart the oracle's prediction. But Oedipus remembers that long ago he had indeed slain a man in a brawl at a crossroads.
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Oedipus continues his questioning. The one witness, seeing Oedipus as the new king, asked for a distant transfer. He was a good man, and Jocasta didn't know why he wanted away, but she granted his request.
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The statue was inspired by Oedipus at Colonus, one of three plays about Oedipus written in the fifth century BCE by Greek dramatist Sophocles. Through a tragic series of incidents beyond his control, Oedpius unwittingly killed his father and married his mother, thereby fulfilling a prophesy told to his parents when he was born. Once he learned what he had done, Oedipus blinded himself in grief and wandered Greece as a beggar, accompanied by his daughter Antigone. An outcast to most, Oedipus was allowed into Attica by the King of Athens, where his life ended when he entered an olive grove and was never seen again - apparently taken up by the gods. The sculpture depicts Oedipus as he is about to enter the olive grove and gain release from his life of suffering and agony. Knowing that the end is near, he separates from his loving daughter, Antigone, who can no longer help him.
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The oracle—and Oedipus himself—identify the king with the land, so that calamity or corruption in the king causes famine in his domain. This principle existed in many ancient cultures. In some early societies, a famine or pestilence on the land was enough to arouse people to kill their king and choose another—hopefully purer—ruler whose ascent to power could restore the fertility of the land.
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King Laius