Theban kings in Greek mythology predictions brought him closer to his fate - Oedipus killed King Laius and married Jocasta. Oedipus then became king of Thebes, as husband of the widowed Jocasta. The couple had four children, including two sons, Polyneices and Eteocles. When the seer Teiresias revealed Oedipus' horrible crimes - patricide, regicide and incest, no less - Oedipus was forced to abdicate. Jocasta killed herself, and Oedipus was shunned by his own children. Oedipus responded by cursing his sons Polyneices and Eteocles. "Polyneices" and "Eteocles" made a pact that each should rule alternately for one year at a time. But Eteocles reneged on
Greek mythology in popular culture denotes the emotions and ideas that the mind keeps in the unconscious, via dynamic repression, that concentrate upon a child's desire to sexually possess his/her mother, and kill his/her father. In his later writings Freud postulated an equivalent Oedipus situation for infant girls, the sexual fixation being on the father. Though not advocated by Freud himself, the term 'Electra complex' is sometimes used in this context. A "Medea complex" is sometimes used to describe parents who murder or otherwise harm their children. Romans would frequently keep statuary of the Greek god Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and pleasure, in