The Feet of Oedipus
The Feet of OedipusThe Feet of Oedipus
Oedipus is an excellent ruler of Thebes. He is a king, a great father, and has the respect of all the Thebans. Oedipus, however, has a lot of problems. He marries his mom, kills his dad, all the gods hate him, he is impetuous, and he is blind to the world, but it all boils down to one colossal flaw: his feet.
I bet you are wondering what Oedipus’ fatal flaw has to deal with his feet. Well ,it is quite simple, they are swollen. When Oedipus was an infant, his parents did not exactly want this little fellow, so they tried to get rid of him. Oedipus’ parents had his feet staked to a hillside so he would pass on to a better and more wonderful world. It did not work. Far away on another grassy knoll, a lonely sheered watching over his flock of sheep spied the babe and took pity on the poor little tyke. He took Oedipus in his burly arms and brought him to his wife in a cottage near the crossroads. There they will decide what to do with the newborn. As the shepherd’s wife was trying to mend the “swollen” feet of Oedipus, the shepherd remembered why the king and queen of Thebes were trying to do away with this little neonate. The God Apollo, had a made a disturbing prophesy, that the first born son to the royal family of Thebes, would indeed marry his mother and kill his father. So the shepherd knew that some how, some way, he must get this bantling far, far away from Thebes. Just out of the blue, a Corinthian messenger strolls by. The shepherd gets a brilliant idea, if I give this little pipsqueak to this guy, then he’ll take the baby far, far away and the prophesy will never come true. The Corinthian messenger gladly took the child away and presented it to his king and queen.
As a young man growing up in Corinth, he was teased a lot on how he would walk around the city. His feet never recovered completely so for the rest of his life he walked with a limp wherever he would go. He was the Rudolph of his village. He was a pariah. The other children never let him play in the “Reindeer” games. So Oedipus was forced to spend most of his time learning what his father was doing to run the kingdom and Oedipus particularly liked when his tutor would give him riddles to solve. Oedipus became a very smart man at a very young age. Even though he couldn’t run to save his life, he could multiply seven digit numbers in his head with pinpoint accuracy. The king wanted to tell Oedipus that...
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