Oedipus

The story begins with a son born to King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes. The oracle at Delphi told them that their child would grow up to murder Laius and marry Jocasta. Horrified, the king fastened the infant's feet together with a large pin and left him on a mountainside.

However, shepherds found the baby and took him to the city of Corinth. Oedipus the infant eventually came to the house of Polybus, king of Corinth and his queen, Merope, who adopted him as they were without children of their own. Little Oedipus/Oidipous was named after the swelling from the injuries to his feet and ankles. The word oedema (British English) or edema (American English) is from this same Greek word for swelling. When Oedipus was grown, however, someone told him that he was not the son of Polybus. Oedipus went to Delphi to ask the oracle about his parentage. The answer he received was, "You are the man fated to murder his father and marry his mother."

Believing that the oracle had said he was fated to kill Polybus and marry Merope, Oedipus vowed never to return to Corinth. Instead, he headed toward Thebes.

Along the way, Oedipus came to a narrow road between cliffs. There he met a disguised King Laius, in a chariot coming the other way. The two quarreled over who should give way, and Oedipus killed his true father, unknowingly, and went on to Thebes. He learned that a monster called the Sphinx was terrorizing the Thebans by devouring them when they failed to answer its riddle "What walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening?" Oedipus gave the correct answer: "A human being, who crawls as an infant, walks erect in maturity, and leans on a staff in old age." With this answer, Oedipus not only defeated the Sphinx, which killed itself in rage, but won the throne of the dead king and the hand in marriage of the king's widow, Jocasta.

So, Oedipus fulfilled is dreadful destiny.