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The use of psychoanalytic theory to interpret Greek myths has been commonplace since the beginning of the psychoanalytic movement. The Oedipus Complex in particular, in terms of which Freud understood the Oedipus myth, has been reapplied to this and to other Greek myths hundreds of times (Edmunds and Ingber, 1977). The procedure can, however, be reversed, and the Oedipus myth can be used to analyze the Oedipus Complex. This approach is applicable, for instance, to the subject of fatherhood. In the myth, Oedipus is as much a father as he is a son, and this observation leads to an inquiry concerning the status of the father in the Complex. This inquiry is to be distinguished from the investigation of the forces in Freud's life which led to the formulation of the Oedipus Complex (e.g., Schorske, 1973; Cuddihy, 1974; Balmary, 1982).
To begin, then, with the Oedipus myth, what of the hero as father? In the standard version of the myth, Oedipus had four children by his own mother. A variant (Evelyn-White, 1964, p. 483)