Oedipus complex

Sham S.Misri

In the Greek legend a wise man had predicted that the kings own child would kill him. When the king’s child was born, he was left to die by the king with a spear in his foot. The baby was found by a shepherd, who named him Oedipus. The shepherd then gave the child to another king Polybus of Corinth to be adopted by him. When Oedipus grew up, he heard a rumour that he was not the biological son of Polybus and his wife. He then questioned the King and Queen, who denied it. Oedipus was still suspicious. He asked the wise man who his real parents were. The wise man seemed to ignore this question, telling him instead that he was destined to "take his own mother to wife and kill his own father".

When Oedipus heard this he was worried. He had a belief that king Polybus and his queen were his true parents. He thought of being away from them, so that he would never harm them. When Oedipus left he met a monster, a creature who would only let the person who could solve its' riddle live.

The question was: what begins with four legs lives with two and dies with three.

The wise Oedipus answered: man, for he is born crawling, lives walking and dies with a Cain in his hand. Then he killed the monster.

As a reward for killing the monster, Oedipus married Queen Jocasta. The queen did not know who Oedipus really was. They had four children. Later Queen Jocasta came to know that she was both the mother and wife of Oedipus. This was not her choice, but rather was the result of a series of events. She was the mother of Oedipus. She did a horrible thing in the innocence of her heart; for she married her own son, and he had slain his own father first. The wise men had kept it secret from people's knowledge for some time. So Oedipus continued to be the king.

On discovering who he really was, Oedipus tore out his eyes, cursed himself and his sons and left the city with the queen and committed suicide. Oedipus tried to do everything possible to escape the wise man’s ruling and punished himself by blinding when he learned that he had unwittingly committed both these crimes.

Oedipus complex is a term used to explain the childhood desire to sleep with the mother and to kill the father. Essentially, a boy feels like he is in competition with his father for possession of his mother. He views his father as a rival for her attentions and affections.