The Cruel Fate of King Oedipus Quiz

Answer: Polybus and Merope

Oedipus' more famous parents weren't the Corinthian ones who raised him, as they proved far less relevant to his fate. However, his relationship with his adoptive parents was very important and led to his return and re-introduction to the land of his birth.

Answer: The Sphinx

Oedipus defeated the Sphinx, a riddling creature with the body of a lion but the head of a human woman who would kill all travelers who could not answer the riddle successfully. Oedipus freed the Sphinx's victims once he answered the riddle, as the Sphinx killed herself after his success.

Answer: Thebes

Thebes was the city Oedipus took over after his miraculous victory over the Sphinx. He was given the kingship and the hand of the Queen Jocasta in marriage as a reward for protecting the city from the monster.

Answer: Feet pierced together

Oedipus was taken into the woods on order of his parents and left to die with his feet pierced together, but the shepherd handed him off to a Corinthian messenger, who gave him to the king and queen who raised him.

Answer: Plague

A plague descends upon Thebes after years of Oedipus' reign, and the populace begs him to discover the cause and remove it by any means. Oedipus, as an intelligent leader, reaches out to those best equipped to help - as far as he knew, that was the Delphic oracle and the seer Tiresias.

Answer: Laius

The last king, Laius, was killed on the road but the killers were never found, as that time was preoccupied with discovering the Sphinx's riddle. Oedipus, upon hearing that the killer is at large and his sin is infecting the city, swears to find the man.

Answer: Blindness

Tiresias is the blind seer, and compares Oedipus' ignorance to blindness at first, then progressing to assert that Oedipus will suffer a literal blindness in the future to match his prior figurative blindness. Oedipus will also be exiled, though that does not bind the two.

Answer: Kills herself

Jocasta, realizing that all the prophecies about her first son had come true and that he was now her husband, hangs herself in her bedroom. Oedipus finds her, followed by other members of the household.

Answer: Antigone

Antigone is the loyal child and remains adamantly protective of her family to the end, going so far as to bury her traitor brother Polynices after he falls in war against Thebes, despite an edict against such activity.

Answer: Creon

Creon is the brother of Jocasta and brother-in-law/uncle to Oedipus. He ultimately carries out the order to banish Oedipus, but later on conspires to bring him back into the city so that Oedipus can be buried there. Oedipus refuses to be buried in the city that had rejected him, and knows that Creon only wants him back because a new prophecy had implied that Oedipus' burial would bless the place where it happened.