Iocaste

Laius, king of Thebes, was warned by an oracle that his son would slay him. When his wife Iocaste bore a son, he disposed of the child. A shepherd found the infant. The baby was adopted by King Polybus of Corinth and his wife. They called the infant Oedipus and he was brought up as their son.

In early manhood Oedipus visited the oracle of Delphi and learned that he was fated to kill his father and to marry his mother, so he never returned to Corinth. Traveling toward Thebes, he encountered Laius, who provoked a quarrel in which Oedipus killed him. He received the throne of Thebes and the hand of widowed queen Iocaste. When finally the gruesome truth emerged, Iocaste committed suicide and her son blinded himself.