Mythic Figure

Laius

Λάιος

mythepictragedy

The Theban king warned that his own son would kill him — met at a crossroads.

Thrice warned by Apollo that a son of his would be his death, Laius pierced the infant’s ankles and had him exposed on Cithaeron. The child lived. Years later, at a narrow crossroads on the Delphi road, an old man in a wagon struck a young traveler and ordered him aside; the traveler killed him. Sophocles’ Oedipus the King is the slow, relentless discovery of who each of them was.

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