- His father, King Labdacus, died very early into Lausis’s childhood and Lycus not only took care of him but assumed the throne.
- However, two twin brothers, Amphion and Zethus, killed Lycus to become crowned kings of Thebes.
- A few loyal citizens helped Lauis escape Thebes, and was raised in the court of Pelops where he eventually raped Pelops son, Chrisippus, and went back to Thebes to discover that Amphion and Zethus died.
- Therefore, Lauis easily became king and married Jocasta.
- Lauis discovered from the Oracle of Delphi that if he ever had a son that the son would kill him and marry his mother.
- In a different version of the myth, the oracle said that Thebes would be saved if he had no children.
- Unfortunately, Lauis had too much to drink and, through Jocasta, gave Oedipus life!
- Lauis was ordered that the baby should be left on a mountain to die.
- However, the shepherd responsible for taking the baby on the mountain gave the baby to another shepherd who gave the baby to King Polybus and Queen Merope.
- Eventually, as we all know, King Lauis encountered Oedipus who ended his life according to the prophecy.
Saturday, October 6, 2018
King Laius
When I was reading Oedipus, I could not stop thinking about the story of King Laius. Now that I read an interesting article about his biography, hopefully I can provide further insight into our discussion about Oedipus and his family. Source: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Laius/laius.html.amp
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
This is an amazing overview on the life of King Laius. The most shocking thing I find about this is that Jocasta was originally the wife of Laius which can only mean that she is Oedipus' mother as well as his wife! I never did think about this and am quite surprised. From the article you posted, I notice at the end how it says that Laius was supposed to die childless and that all of his descendants had an ill fate. This is interesting because of how it relates back to Oedipus himself. Had Laius died childless like the Oracle told him to, he wouldn't have been conquered and killed by his son and lose his wife to him. In fact, another version of the story I found says that the only way that Laius could save Thebes from disaster was to not have a child. This must have been the reason that Laius thought it was a good idea to abandon Oedipus after he was born. He was afraid that the oracle might actually come true and in retaliation he left Oedipus at Mount Cithaeron. Now THAT is interesting.
Post a Comment