Jocasta

Jocasta

In Greek mythology, Jocasta, also known as Jocaste ( _el. Iοκαστη) or Epikastê [Homer, "Odyssey" XI.271-290.] was a daughter of Menoeceus and Queen consort of Thebes, Greece. She was the wife of Laius. Mother of Oedipus by Laius, and mother of Antigone, Eteocles, Polynices and Ismene by Oedipus. She was also sister of Creon.

The tale goes that one day her husband, King Laios of Thebes, consulted an oracle when she was pregnant with Oedipus. The oracle told Laius that the child was destined to kill his father. Laios left the child on a mountain to die after mounting his ankle to the cliff. He was found by a shepherd and sent to King Polybos and Queen Meropê of Corinth, via a messenger.

Oedipus grew up and in a battle at Phocis had killed King Laios, not knowing he was his true father. Oedipus believed King Polybos and Queen Merope of Corinth were his father and mother. The widowed Queen Jocasta then marries Oedipus, not recognizing Oedipus as her own son. According to some versions, Jocasta had a necklace that she inherited that allowed her to retain her youth, so she was able to remain beautiful and marry her own son. When Jocasta discovered she had married her own son and gave birth to their incestuous children, she committed suicide by hanging herself. In response, Oedipus pierced his eyeballs with Jocasta's brooches (the Sophocles version). However, in the Phoenician Women by Euripides, Jocasta doesn't commit suicide until she witnesses the death of her sons Eteocles and Polynices (being both their mother and grandmother) who have slain each other in a battle for Thebes. In this version she dies by stabbing herself in the throat with a sword. [Virginia Brown's translation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s "Famous Women", p. 49-50; Harvard University Press, 2001; ISBN 0-674-01130-9.]

ee also

*Oedipus the King by Sophocles is an ancient greek retelling of this legend as a play.

References

ources

*Seneca, "Oedipus" 1024-41.
*Statius, "Thebais" XI.634-644.


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