Oedipus (Euripides) Some scholars believe that the action of the play began with Oedipus defeating the Sphinx, and then moved quickly to the revelations that Oedipus killed the previous king Laius and then that Laius and Jocasta were Oedipus' biological parents. In "Uberlegungen zum "Oedipus" des Euripides" (1990), Martin Hose suggested a reconstruction of the plot of "Oedipus" as follows. Oedipus' adoptive mother Periboea arrives in Thebes to tell him that his (adopted) father Polybus has died. Oedipus is as yet unaware that he is adopted, and believes Periboea and Polybus to be his biological parents. Oedipus proudly tells Periboea how he
Laius raped the king's son, Chrysippus, and carried him off to Thebes while teaching him how to drive a chariot, or as Hyginus records it, during the Nemean games. This abduction is thought to be the subject of one of the lost tragedies of Euripides. With both Amphion and Zethus having died in his absence, Laius became king of Thebes upon his return. After the rape of Chrysippus, Laius married Jocasta or Epicasta, the daughter of Menoeceus, a descendant of the Spartoi. Laius received an oracle from Delphi which told him that he must not have a child, or the child