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Legend has it that Laius, the king of Thebes, is told by an oracle that his still unborn child will murder him and marry Jocasta, the queen. To protect himself from this dire prophecy, Laius orders the death of his newborn son, Oedipus. The shepherd to whom this task has been entrusted secretly places the child in the court of Polybus, king of Corinth, and Queen Merope, where Oedipus grows up as a prince, ignorant of his origin.
Oedipus visits the oracle and is warned to avoid his home, since he is destined to murder his father and take his mother in marriage. Oedipus mistakenly believes that Polybus and Merope are his parents, so to protect them from himself he leaves his home. On the road he meets King Laius, who is a stranger to him, and slays him during a quarrel. Then he comes upon the Sphinx, a monster who lives near Thebes and murders travelers who cannot solve a riddle she poses. Oedipus solves it, whereupon she kills herself. Out of gratitude for ridding them of the monster, the Thebans make him their king and give him Jocasta's hand in marriage. She, who, unknown to him, is his mother, bears him two sons and