On view
Lekythos (oil vessel) depicting Oedipus and the Sphinx,
ca. 460 BCE
Preceding Oedipus’s encounter with the Sphinx, shown here, King Laios and Queen Jocasta of Thebes were issued a prophecy that their son, Oedipus, would kill his father and marry his mother. After they left the baby Oedipus on a mountainside, he was raised by another royal family. He later learned of the prophecy from the Delphic oracle and left for Thebes, wanting to avoid his fate. On the road, Oedipus met Laios and, unaware of the stranger’s identity, killed him. Upon arriving at Thebes, he discovered that the king was dead and that the Sphinx had taken control of the city. The Sphinx challenged Oedipus to answer a riddle on pain of death. After correctly answering, Oedipus defeated the creature, won the throne, and married Jocasta, unknowingly fulfilling the prophecy. While variations of the myth survive, it is best known from Sophocles’s plays, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone.
Information
ca. 460 BCE
Europe, Greece, Athens
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