Why oedipus killed laius

How and why did Oedipus kill his father? Oedipus unknowingly killed his father, Laius, during a confrontation at a crossroads. How Oedipus attacked Laius is unclear, but a popular interpretation is that he beat him with a walking staff.

It fulfilled part of a prophecy that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus is one of the most famous names in all of ancient Greek mythology. The details of the life of Oedipus have varied in different tellings of the story. However, the stories usually have some common features.

In each of the stories, Oedipus is the King of Thebes and enters into a relationship with his mother, usually unwittingly. He causes the death of his father, usually directly. The most well-known version of the Oedipus myth was written by the Athenian playwright Sophocles. At the beginning of the play, Oedipus is the King of Thebes and his city is suffering terribly due to a plague. Oedipus sends Creon, his brother-in-law, to an oracle in the hope of finding a solution.

Creon returns and tells Oedipus that the king must find the killer of Laius, the previous king of Thebes. Consequently, his incessant questions become more purposeful than they were in his conversations with Tiresias and Creon.

We see that Oedipus logically and earnestly pursues the truth when he does not have a preconceived idea of what the truth is. When Oedipus seizes upon the detail of the three-way crossroads — , he proves that he was not merely grandstanding in the first scene of the play when he expressed his desire to be forthright with his citizens and to subject himself to the same laws he imposes upon others.

In his speech at lines —, Oedipus shows that he truly believes he killed Laius and is willing to accept not only the responsibility but the punishment for the act. The speech is heartbreaking because we know that Oedipus has arrived at only half the truth. In this section, Jocasta is both careless and maternal. She tells Oedipus that prophecies do not come true, and she uses the fact that an oracle incorrectly prophesied that Laius would be killed by his own son as evidence. Throughout the play, the Chorus has been miserable, desperate for the plague to end and for stability to be restored to the city.

Nevertheless, the Chorus holds staunchly to the belief that the prophesies of Tiresias will come true. For if they do not, there is no order on earth or in the heavens.

The oracle told him that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus left for Thebes, and on the way he was ordered to get off the road so a carriage could pass. Oedipus refused to move, but therefore was hit. Oedipus found out that he killed Laius, his father, and married his mother, Jocasta.

Being angered, Laius either rolled a chariot wheel over his foot or hit him with his whip, and Oedipus killed Laius and all but one of his attendants, who claims it was a gang of men. Claire surmises that glaucoma, a degenerative condition that damages the optic nerve, is the likeliest culprit.

Back then, not so much. Ulysses has a bright future ahead of him The only thing missing will be Jocasta, who is sure to miss him just as much as he will miss her.

Jamie owed Ulysses a life debt for his saving of his beloved aunt. After being sentenced to death by drowning, the villain was then surprisingly shot in the head by Brianna Sophie Skelton.