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 not clear. Another theory is that the entire line of Cadmus was cursed, either by Ares when Cadmus killed his serpent, or else by Hephaestus who resented the fact that Cadmus married Harmonia, the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, Hephaestus' straying wife. Certainly, many of Cadmus's descendants had tragic ends. Laius In Greek mythology, King Laius (pronounced ), or Laios () of Thebes was a divine hero and key personage in the Theban founding myth. Son of Labdacus, he was raised by the regent Lycus after the death of his father. While Laius was still young, Amphion and Zethus usurped