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OEDIPUS (OiSiirovs, O16tir63i7s, Wine...

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 13 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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OEDIPUS (OiSiirovs, O16tir63i7s, Wines, from Gr. ot&eiv swell, and gobs See also:foot, i.e. " the swollen-footed ") ' in See also:Greek See also:legend, son of Lalus, See also:king of See also:Thebes, and See also:Jocasta (Iocaste). Lalus, having been warned by an See also:oracle that he would be killed by his son, ordered him to be exposed, with his feet pierced, immediately after his See also:birth. Thus Oedipus See also:grew up ignorant of his parentage, and, See also:meeting Lalus in a narrow way, quarrelled with him and slew him. The See also:country was ravaged by a See also:monster, the See also:Sphinx; Oedipus solved the riddle which it proposed to its victims, freed the country, and married- his own See also:mother. In the Odyssey it is said that the gods disclosed the impiety. Epicaste (as Jocasta is called in See also:Homer) hanged herself, and Oedipus lived as king in Thebes tormented by the See also:Erinyes of his mother. In the tragic poets the See also:tale takes a different See also:form. Oedipus fulfils an See also:ancient prophecy in killing his See also:father; he is the See also:blind See also:instrument in the hands of See also:fate. The further treatment of the tale by See also:Aeschylus is unknown. See also:Sophocles describes in his Oedipus Tyrannus how Oedipus was resolved to pursue to the end the See also:mystery of the See also:death of LaIus, and thus unravelled the dark tale, and in horror put out his own eyes. The sequel of the tale is told in the Oedipus Coloneus.

Banished by his sons, he is tended by the loving care of his daughters. He comes to See also:

Attica and See also:dies in the See also:grove of the See also:Eumenides at Colonus, in his death welcomed and pardoned by the fate which had pursued him throughout his See also:life. In addition to the two tragedies of Sophocles, the legend formed the subject of a trilogy by Aeschylus, of which only the Seven against Thebes is extant; of the Phoenissae of See also:Euripides; and of the Oedipus and Phoenissae of See also:Seneca. See A. Miler's exhaustive See also:article in See also:Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologic; F. W. See also:Schneidewin, See also:Die See also:Sage von Oedipus (1852); D. Cornparetti, Edipo e la mitologia comparata (1867); M. Brea], " Le Mythe d' Edipe," in Melanges de mythologie (1878), who explains Oedipus as a personification of See also:light, and his See also:blinding as the disappearance of the See also:sun at the end of the See also:day; J. Paulson in Eranos. Acta philologica Suecana, i, (See also:Upsala, 1896) places the See also:original See also:home of the legend in See also:Egyptian Thebes, and identifies Oedipus with the Egyptian See also:god See also:Seth, represented as the See also:hippopotamus " with swollen foot," which was said to kill its father in See also:order to take its See also:place with the mother. 0.

See also:

Crusius (Beitrage zur griechischen Mythologie, 1886, p. 21) See also:sees in the See also:marriage of Oedipus with his mother an agrarian myth (with See also:special reference to Oed. See also:Tyr. 1497), while See also:Hofer (in Roscher's Lexikon) suggests that the episodes of the See also:murder of his father and of his marriage are reminiscences of the overthrow of Cronus by See also:Zeus and of the See also:union of Zeus with his own See also:sister. See also:Medieval Legends.—In the See also:Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine (13th See also:century) and the Mystere de la See also:Passion of See also:Jean See also:Michel (15th century) and Arnoul Greban (15th century), the See also:story of Oedipus is associated with the name of Judas. The See also:main See also:idea is the same as in the classical See also:account. The Judas legend, however, never really became popular, whereas that of Oedipus was handed down both orally and in written See also:national tales (Albanian, Finnish, Cypriote). One incident (the See also:incest unwittingly committed) frequently recurs in connexion with the life of See also:Gregory the See also:Great. The Theban legend, which reached its fullest development in the Thebais of See also:Statius and in Seneca, reappeared in the See also:Roman de Thebes (the See also:work of an unknown imitator of See also:Benoit de Sainte-More). Oedipus is also the subject of an See also:anonymous medieval See also:romance (15th century), Le Roman d' Edipus, fils de Layus, in which the sphinx is depicted as a cunning and ferocious See also:giant. The Oedipus legend was handed down to the See also:period of the See also:Renaissance by the Roman and its imitations, which then See also:fell into oblivion. Even to the See also:present day the legend has 1 It is probable that the story of the piercing of his feet is a subsequent invention to explain the name, or is due to a false See also:etymology (from otais), othiiroes in reality meaning the " See also:wise " (from oIha), chiefly in reference to his having solved the riddle, the syllable -revs having no significance.

survived amongst the See also:

modern Greeks, without any traces of the See also:influence of See also:Christianity (B. See also:Schmidt, Griechische Marchen, 1877). The See also:works of the ancient tragedians (especially Seneca, in preference to the Greek) came into See also:vogue, and were slavishly followed by See also:French and See also:Italian imitators down to the 17th century. See L. See also:Constans, La Legende d'CEdipe clans l'antiquite, au moyen See also:age, et dans See also:les temps modernes (1881); D. See also:Comparetti's Edipo and See also:Jebb's introduction for the Oedipus of See also:Dryden, See also:Corneille and See also:Voltaire; A. Heintze, Gregorius auf dem Steine, der mittelalterliche Oedipus (progr., See also:Stolp, 1897); V. Diederichs, Russische Verwandte der Legende von Gregor auf dem See also:Stein and der Sage von Judas Ischariot," in Russische Revue (188o); S. Novakovitch, " Die Oedipussage in der siidslavischen Volksdichtung," in Archiv See also:fur slavische Philologie xi. (1888).

End of Article: OEDIPUS (OiSiirovs, O16tir63i7s, Wines, from Gr. ot&eiv swell, and gobs foot, i.e. " the swollen-footed ")

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