Oedipus's Fate And Essential Nature

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Oedipus's Fate and Essential Nature Oedipus was born by the King and Queen of Thebes. King Laius and his wife Jocasta were informed by a prophet that Laius "is doomed and would perish by the hand of his own son"; if they had a child he would kill the father and marry the mother and produce offspring with her. Regardless of the curse, they had a baby. Knowing this terrible curse was brought upon them, they immediately tried to impede the prophecy, and made a decision to have the child killed. The parents stabbed bolts through the baby's feet and handed him off to a shepherd. The shepherd was supposed to kill the baby, but instead took pity on him and gave him to another shepherd he ran into. The second shepherd explained that the elder king and queen of Corinth could not have children of their own and would love to have a baby. They named him Oedipus which means "swollen feet". As Oedipus got older, he discovered his unfortunate prophecy. He believed that the adopted parents were his real parents and did not want to cause any harm to them. With this in mind, soon after he ran away; he sought out on a search for the truth and to discover his true self. On his journey he ran into a crossroad. There were several men in a chariot there who wanted him to move out of their way. He would not do so, so the men attempted to attack him. In "self-defense", Oedipus killed them all. After this, he traveled to Thebes, which was experiencing horrible times. While visiting, he met a sphinx. She had a riddle that needed to be solved. Oedipus replied with the correct answer effortlessly. The people of Thebes rejoiced and made him their new king. Next, Oedipus married their new widow queen, Jocasta, who was also Oedipus's real mother. He had four kids with her. One day a messenger came to Oedipus and found out the real truth and also his fate. One of the men that he had killed
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