Oedipus Complex

   Oedipus complex is the psychoanalytical term for the sexual attraction of a son to his mother, accompanied by manifestations of hostility toward the father.

   The name for this psychological pattern in males was taken by Sigmund Freud from the Greek myth of Oedipus because the life of this Theban king seemed to act out in detail th logic of Freud's theory, the repressed desires of the male. Although Oedipus was the subject of many Greek tragedies, his pathetic fate was best dramatized by Sophocles in Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus.

   Oedipus was the son of Laius, king of Thebes, and of his queen, Jocasta. An oracle warned the parents to beget n children, for the king would perish at the hands of his own son, who would then marry his mother. Having begotten Oedipu while drunkenly out of control of his sexual impulses, the king, trying to circumvent this prophecy of doom, exposed the infant Oedipus on a mountaintop, his feet bound and pierced. He was found by a s pherd and presented to the king of Corinth, who reared him as his own son, giving him the name Oedipus because of his swollen feet (oedipus in Greek means "swollen feet").

   When Oedipus was grown, he was informed by the oracle of the future tragedy of his life. Believing that the Corinthian king was his real father, Oedipus left and resolved never to return to Corinth. On his way to Thebes, his chariot and one coming in an opposite direction could not pass at the same time because the road was too narrow. An argument ensued, and Oedipus killed the stranger — who turned out to be Laius, his natural father.

   Oedipus continued on to Thebes, where the celebrated Sphinx, sitting majestically on a rock, kept posing what seemed to be an unanswerable riddle to the Thebans. Whoever failed to solve her riddle, she would kill at once. In desperation, the Thebans offered their kingdom and the hand of Jocasta to anyone who would rid the country of his monster. Oedipus solved the riddle; in innocence married the widowed queen; and became, by her, the father of four children. When Oedipus and his mother discovered that their relationship was incestuous, Jocasta hanged herself, and Oedi us put out his eyes. And thus the prophecy came to pass.