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Aidun
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The Hague, the capital of the civilized world
Nov 2002
time: 06:35
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Oidipous.
Born in Thebes. His father, king of Thebes asked the Oracle of Delphi what would be the future of his son, and the answer was that the son would kill his father. After this series of disasters would hit the family. To prevent this his mother, Iocaste left the baby alone in the mountains, not able to crawl. A ahepherd found the boy, however, and brought him to his king, king Polybos of Corinth. The king had no son and adopted the boy as his decendant to the throne.
Oidipous was raised at the Corinthian court and had a peaceful life until he found out that he was adopted. So he left to find out who his real parents were. On his way he was insulted severely by a hornblower of King Laios. Enraged, he killed both and went to Thebes. There he met the Sphinx, the creature that was a lion with a woman's head and wings.
The Sphinx asked him a riddle: "What walks on four legs in the morning, on two in the afternoon and on three in the evening?" Oidipous answered: "Man does. As child he crawlson four, grown up he walks on two, and when he's old, he uses a stick."
This answer was right and killed the Sphinx and released the Thebans of a curse that was for centuries on them. The Thebans were so thankful that they offered the widow of the recently perished king as his wife. They married and got children. Yet not long after they married, Thebes was hit by terrible plagues, caused by the death of former king Laios. Oidipous, not knowing that it was the king he killed, cursed the killer and bode the royal prophecy teller to reveal the truth of the killer. Yet Tereisias, as the phrophecy teller was called, din't dare to, causing himself to become suspect. In the meanwhile Oidipous was asked to become king of Corinth, because Polybos had perished. He found out the truth of his birth and that he was married with his own mother and had committed incest with her. Ashamed of this, Queen Iocaste committed suicide, and Oidipoes stabbed out his own eyes. He was dethroned and left Thebes to wander through the land.
The next chapter of this Theban adventure you can read in Sophocles' Antigone. This tale is also composed by him in one of his famous theatre pieces.
Aidun
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18-06-2004 02:06
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