Oedipus Examined and Reconsidered: The Myth, the Developmental Stage, the Universal Theme, the Conflict, and the Complex

Each man is in each instance in dialogue with his forebears, and perhaps even more and in a more hidden manner with those who will come after him [Heidegger as cited in Carroll, 1983, p. 65].

I begin this essay with Heidegger because his observation, succinctly put, is the major theme of this chapter. It is in a deeper sense one of the fundamental components of psychoanalysis—the past influences the present and can be a significant determinant of the future. Let me sketch an outline of my thesis.

The Oedipus complex, though not always so named, probably has been known since man first appeared on Earth. Manifestations of it that are being actively pursued by ethologists, sociobiologists, and students of animal behavior, appear in the animal kingdom. The myth of Oedipus was known to Homer and his precursors. Hesiod, a contemporary of Homer, in his epic poems Theogony and Works and Days, gives us his version of the ancient Greek cosmogony. Hesiod's writings parallel the beliefs of other cultures