Oedipus of Theban plays by Sophocles: "Oedipus Rex", "Oedipus at Colonus", and "Antigone". Oedipus was the son of Laius and Jocasta, king and queen of Thebes. Having been childless for some time, Laius consulted the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi. The Oracle prophesied that any son born to Laius would kill him. In an attempt to prevent this prophecy's fulfillment, when Jocasta indeed bore a son, Laius had his ankles pierced and tethered together so that he could not crawl; Jocasta then gave the boy to a servant to abandon ("expose") on the nearby mountain. However, rather than leave the child
Jocasta (comics) to Machine Man who had been working on a way to resurrect her, just before Machine Man was attacked by a form of the alien Terminus. In the same area, the arms dealer Madame Menace became involved in the fray, and found Jocasta's lost head, appropriating it for her own purposes. Much later, Madame Menace manipulated events so Tony Stark would unlock Jocasta's programming so that she would become the basis for Madame Menace's new weapons systems. Stark soon realized the android's identity, helped Jocasta to awaken, and Jocasta managed to turn the tables on Madame Menace, seemingly sacrificing herself