Laius complex Laius complex The ‘’’Laius complex’’’ revolves around the paternal wish for filicide, particularly for the extinction of the male heir, in an attempt to ensure one will have no successors. Indo-European mythology contains a number of stories of foundlings, like Cyrus the Great or Romulus and Remus, outcast after a prophesy that they will replace the dynasty into which they are born. In Greek mythology, Cronus (Roman Saturn) had devoured his young because of his fear that one would supersede him. Laius in the story of Oedipus similarly casts the latter out to die as an infant because of (in
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