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The obvious and graphic relevance of the interpretation of the Oedipus legend in termsof the infantile tringular constellation, with all its implications, is in part responsible for a general failure to recognize that the most important aspect of the Oedipus storyis its theme of what I shall call the “adventure of promotion.” This theme embraces the deeds that symbolize the juvenile adventure of the hero, and encompasses the period of life between the exposure of the hero at Mount Kythairon—when only an infant of two days—to his triumphal entry into Thebes. The corresponding infantile fantasies, in the shape of a whole scheme of promotion to the status of adulthood, fundamentally adopt the form of what Freud called the “family romance.” It is only natural, therefore, that Freud should contribute to Rank's Myth of the Birth of the Hero with his well-known chapter about this very topic.
A strict correspondence may be seen between the episodes of the “adventure of promotion,” at least in its male version, and the cardinal stages of childhood—including birth experiences—extending to the boy's triangular (oedipal) period. I sought to demonstratethis in my “Oedipus Legend and Oedipus Rex.”4 There I tried to show, that when we examine the main episodes of the Oedipus legend* in the reverse order, we get a panoramic view of the preoedipal period. Let us quote several statements: