Oedipus (Euripides) and hence the fragment describing the blinding refers to Oedipus as the son of Polybus. The blind Oedipus has a scene with Jocasta and possibly Periboea in which the fact that his biological parents are Laius and Jocasta is revealed. Menoetes, another servant of Laius who had originally exposed Oedipus when he was born, might have played a role in this recognition scene as well. As a result of this revelation, Creon wants to exile Oedipus as further punishment, generating the later fragments. These include Jocasta's support for and sharing of moral responsibility with Oedipus and her accusing Creon of
Oedipus and the Sphinx and evil, but also between the sexes, and that the opening poem of "Buch der Leider" by Heinrich Heine was the source for the idea of the painting. In that poem the Sphinx triumphs over Oedipus. In a Freudian interpretation, it has been argued that the Sphinx represents the castrating effect of Moreau's mother that he has seeking to escape. At the time the painting was created, Moreau's father had recently died. By contrast, Henri Dorra has suggested that the poses of the sphinx and Oedipus are derived from the Greek etymological meaning of the word sphinx, which is to