Meaning and history
Latinized form of Greek Οἰδίπους (Oidipous), meaning “swollen foot,” from οἰδέω (oideo), “to swell,” and πούς (pous), “foot.” In Greek mythology, Oedipus was the son of the Theban king Laius and his wife Jocasta. Laius was told by prophecy that his son would kill him, so he abandoned the newborn to die, but the child was rescued and raised by the Corinthian king Polybus. When Oedipus later learned of the same prophecy, he left Corinth to avoid harming Polybus, whom he believed to be his father, but on the way to Delphi he killed Laius in a quarrel and unwittingly fulfilled the prophecy. He then solved the Sphinx’s riddle, gained the vacant throne of Thebes, and married the widowed Jocasta, his mother. When the truth was revealed years later, Jocasta killed herself and Oedipus blinded himself.