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Although language is the common medium of communication, the intensive analytical interpretation of verbal forms is not an accepted procedure either in linguistic or in psychological literature (22). We shall test this linguistic approach to unconscious fantasies by applying it to a mythological theme, the psychological relevancy of which has been thoroughly investigated (9, 10, 11, 12). Our question is this: can anything be disclosed through the analysis of verbal forms, any new material be turned up which has not been found otherwise through clinical or ethnological evidences? (15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21). Can such linguistic study contribute something to the better understanding of the Oedipus situation? Words have a long, long history: they are much older than written records. They may derive from the prehistory of our culture, thus permitting an insight into the prehistory of thinking. The technique we shall apply in interpreting these verbal forms is the same analytical technique which has been used in interpreting dreams. We shall try to grasp the latent meaning of word complexes which has been repressed, forgotten and covered up by the new and manifest meanings described “by definition” in our dictionaries. In the vestiges of repressed word contents we may discover thought fragments still in their primary form while the mythical account displays mostly their secondary rationalization.
The mythical motivation of the Greek name Oidi-pous, meaning “swollen footed”, is one example of a secondary rationalization. Sophocles, the narrator of the myth, does not understand why Oedipus has been called by this name. He feels that there is a need for explanation. Thus he resorts to plain common sense and says that when the babe was exposed on the slope of the mountain, he was found tied up, his ankles bound fast in such way that lasting injury resulted. So the nameless foundling babe was called “Swollen Footed”. It is the specific mark by which the identity