Oedipus: The Mysteries Of Fate

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the child to another shepherd. This shepherd gave the baby to a
childless king and queen of Corinth, Polybus and Merope. This royal couple
named the boy Oedipus, which in its Greek form Oidipous means "swollen foot."
Oedipus was brought up believing that Polybus and Merope were his real parents,
and Lauis and Jocasta believed that their child was dead and the prophecy of
Apollo was false. Many years later, he was told by a drunk man at a banquet that
he was not a true heir of Polybus (page 55). He then went to the oracle of
Apollo, to ask the god who his real parents were. All he was told was that he
would kill his father and marry his mother (page 56). He resolved never to
return to Corinth, to Polybus and Merope, and started out to make a new life for
himself elsewhere. He came to a place where three main roads met, and in the
narrow place was ordered off the road and then attacked by the driver of a
chariot in which an old man was riding. A fight started, and Oedipus, in ...

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