Oedipus Rex

Oedipus Rex is one of my favorite Greek tragedies. The story is based on a man named Oedipus who was destined to kill his father and marry his own mother. Trying to run from his fate, he left the city where he lived and became king of Thebes. Little did he know, that the prophesy had come true because the people he left in Corinth were not his true parents, but the people who raised him after his real parents abandoned him. They had abandoned him because they, too, were trying to avoid their destiny. On his way to Thebes, he killed King Laois, who happened to be his father. When he became King of Thebes, he married Laios' wife, Queen Jocasta, who turned out to be his birth mother. When the truth is revealed to him, he was so ashamed that he blinded and banished himself.