Oedipus and Arcadio

There have been many similarities between the works of literature we've read so far this year, and one of the biggest ones is the motif of incest. In One Hundred Years of Solitude, Ursula and her husband's relationship is incestuous, and she fears the consequences of incest for the rest of her family members. However, she doesn't even know about one of the potential incestuous relationships: Arcadio and his mother, Pilar Ternera.

Like Oedipus, Arcadio doesn't know his true parentage. He is raised by two Guajiro servants in the Buendia household and later by Ursula. At one point, he even announces, "By my honor, I am not a Buendia," which is ironic because he is actually the son of Jose Arcadio and Pilar Ternera. Because Arcadio does not know his true parentage, he is attracted to his mother, Pilar Ternera, and even seeks her out for a sexual relationship (although it is possible he might have sought her out anyway given the other taboo relationships in this novel). Because she knows she is his mother, Pilar sends Arcadio in the direction of another woman, Santa Sofia de la Piedad, whom Arcadio later marries. However, Oedipus's mother, Jocasta, doesn't have this opportunity. She believes she killed her son, Oedipus, when he was an infant. Oedipus and Jocasta marry, both ignorant of their familial relationship. Oedipus would never have married a woman he knew to be his mother--that is the very prophecy he has tried to avoid his entire life. Both Arcadio and Oedipus are cursed to commit an ultimate taboo as a result of the mystery of their parentage.