Source Verification: Oedipus

Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.

What the Sources Attest

Did Oedipus know he was fulfilling the prophecy?

No. Every ancient account has him act without knowing. In Sophocles's Oedipus Tyrannus he flees Corinth precisely because he believes Polybus and Merope are his parents, then kills a stranger at a crossroads. Apollodorus agrees that he left Corinth believing himself the son of his nominal parents. The sources differ on when he found out. Homer's Odyssey says the gods revealed the truth straightway, while Sophocles delays the discovery until years into his reign. In Oedipus at Colonus he argues his own innocence: the oracle predates his birth, he killed a man who attacked him first, and he married his mother unknowingly.

Source: Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 960-999

Why did Oedipus marry his mother?

Because he did not know she was his mother, and marrying her was the prize for saving Thebes. Apollodorus says Creon proclaimed that whoever solved the Sphinx's riddle would receive both the kingdom and the wife of Laius. Oedipus solved it, and so he unwittingly married his own mother. Sophocles gives the same picture. His Oedipus believes his mother is Merope of Corinth, the very woman he fled to avoid the prophecy. In Oedipus at Colonus he says that neither he nor she knew the truth, and that he did not marry her willingly.

Source: Apollodorus, Library 3.5.8

Who was Oedipus in love with?

The ancient sources do not tell a love story about Oedipus. His marriage to his mother, called Jocasta by Sophocles and Epicaste by Homer, came as a political reward. Apollodorus says the kingdom and Laius's widow went together to whoever solved the Sphinx's riddle. The tradition even disputes who bore his children. Pausanias argues from Homer that the incest was revealed too quickly for any children. He names their mother as Euryganeia, a second wife. In the tragedies his closest bond is with his daughter Antigone, who guides him in exile.

Source: Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.5.10-9.5.11

What is the moral of the Oedipus story?

The ancient sources draw different lessons from it. The closing lines of Sophocles's Oedipus Tyrannus warn that no mortal should be called happy until he dies free from pain, since even the man who solved the famous riddle fell. Aeschylus's Seven Against Thebes treats the story as an inherited curse: Laius disobeyed Apollo's oracle, and the ruin passed to his son and grandsons. Oedipus at Colonus stresses innocence, with Oedipus saying his deeds were suffered rather than done. Modern readers often name pride as his flaw, but that is interpretation rather than an ancient verdict.

Source: Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus 1524-1530

Is Oedipus in the Odyssey?

Yes, briefly, and in a version that differs from the famous one. In Book 11, Odysseus sees the mother of Oedipus among the dead and names her Epicaste. Homer says the gods revealed the incest straightway, and that Oedipus went on ruling the Cadmeans in Thebes, suffering through the gods' designs. Epicaste hanged herself. Homer mentions no blinding and no exile. The Iliad also places his burial at Thebes. Pausanias later used Homer to reject Sophocles's account of a death at Colonus.

Source: Homer, Odyssey 11.271-280

Where Accounts Differ

Jocasta or Epicaste
who bore Oedipus's children
whether Oedipus kept ruling after the revelation
where and how Oedipus died
the oracle to Laius: warning or advice
Periboea or Merope

Whether Oedipus stayed king after the truth came out depends on the source. Homer's Odyssey (11.271-280) has the gods reveal the incest straightway, after which Oedipus goes on ruling Thebes, and the Iliad (23.679-680) places his burial there. Sophocles (Oedipus Tyrannus 1182-1185, 1268-1279) and Apollodorus (Library 3.5.9) have him blind himself and leave the city.
His mother's name varies. Homer calls her Epicaste, Sophocles and Pausanias Jocasta (Iocasta), and Apollodorus says some sources give one name and some the other.
The mother of his four children is disputed. Apollodorus (Library 3.5.8) gives the standard account that Jocasta bore Polynices, Eteocles, Ismene and Antigone, but also records that some make Eurygania their mother. Pausanias (9.5.10-9.5.11) argues from Homer that Oedipus had no children by his mother, naming Euryganeia, daughter of Hyperphas, on the authority of the lost Oedipodia.
The place and manner of his death differ. Sophocles's Oedipus at Colonus (1656-1666) has him pass away mysteriously at Colonus, seen only by Theseus, and Apollodorus (3.5.9) also has him die at Colonus. Homer's Iliad implies a death and burial at Thebes, and Pausanias (1.28.7) explicitly prefers Homer to Sophocles on this point.
The oracle to Laius takes two forms. Apollodorus (3.5.7), Pausanias (9.5.10) and Sophocles's Oedipus Tyrannus (711-714) report it as a warning that his son would kill him. Aeschylus's Seven Against Thebes (742-757) frames it as Apollo's thrice-repeated advice that Laius should die childless to save the city, which he disobeyed.
His knowledge of what he was doing is the cluster's contested question. No ancient source has him act knowingly. Sophocles's Oedipus Tyrannus (771-813) shows him fleeing Corinth to avoid the prophecy, and in Oedipus at Colonus (265-274, 960-999) he defends himself as unwitting and as having killed in self-defense.
The foster mother is Periboea in Apollodorus (3.5.7) and Merope in Sophocles's Oedipus Tyrannus (775). Sophocles also has a Theban servant hand the baby to a Corinthian out of pity (1171-1178), where Apollodorus has him exposed on Cithaeron and found by Polybus's herdsmen.

Sources

Primary sources

Homer, Odyssey 11.271-280
Homer, Iliad 23.679-680
Hesiod, Works and Days 161-163
Apollodorus, Library 3.5.7
Apollodorus, Library 3.5.8
Apollodorus, Library 3.5.9
Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.5.10-9.5.11
Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.28.7
Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.30.4
Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus 771-813
Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus 1182-1185
Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus 1263-1279
Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 960-999
Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1656-1666
Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 742-791
Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus 452-456