Jocasta- queen of Thebes, married to King Laius, was happy. That is, until an oracle warned her that her son would kill his father and marry his mother. Not surprisingly, Jocasta and her husband decided to avoid this horrid prediction. So they left their baby (Oedipus) with a shepherd and told him to leave him somewhere to die. The shepherd took pity on the baby though, and gave him to a passing traveler. Oedipus was soon adopted by King Polybus and Queen Periboea. Jocasta and Laius considered the matter closed.
Years later, Laius and four attendants were traveling in a chariot on a road to Thebes. They met a man on the road, whom they tried to move off of the road so that the chariot could go by. During this, Laius poked the man with his stick. The man quickly got upset and killed Laius and three of his attendants. The fourth ran and told Jocasta what had happened. Little did any of them know, that the man on the road was in fact Oedipus, Jocasta's own son.
But Jocasta had other things to worry about. Aside from the death of her husband, a monstrous sphinx was plaguing the city. She sat at the gates of Thebes and asked a riddle to everyone who tried to use them. If they couldn't answer the riddle correctly, the sphinx would eat them. Oedipus came to the gates of Thebes and was assaulted by the sphinx and her riddle. Lucky for Oedipus though, he answered the riddle smartly and correctly. The sphinx then died a pitiful death.
Jocasta and the rest of Thebes welcomed Oedipus as a hero into their town. Jocasta was so impressed with his smarts that she married him. Together they had two sons and two daughters: Polynices, Eteocles, Antigone, and Ismene. Everything was well.
Then a plague hit Thebes and the people begged their new king for help. Oedipus sent Jocasta's brother Creon to the Oracle at Delphi to ask for Apollo's help. The oracle said that the plague wouldn't go away into Laius's murder was punished. Oedipus asked Tiresias to help find the murderer, and Tiresias revealed Oedipus as the murderer.
Oedipus was completely shocked at what Tiresias had said. He went to Jocasta and asked her about it. She remembered the prophecy given so long ago. She told everything to Oedipus, even about how they had treated their first son. Later when Oedipus had returned to the palace, he found that Jocasta had devastatingly taken the noose to herself.
The oracle's prophecy was correct. Oedipus killed his father and married his mother. I would consider that problematic. Would you?
