Jocasta

Jocasta, in Sophocles' tragedy Oedipus the King, is the wife of Laius and mother of Oedipus. An oracle told Jocasta that her son would kill Laius. Laius had the child's ankles pinned and abandoned him on Mount Cithaeron.

A shepherd was given the baby to dispose of, but he could not kill it and gave the baby the name Oedipus, "swollen foot". The shepherd gave Oedipus to a messenger, who in turn gave Oedipus to Polybus, king of Corinth, who raised him as his own son. When the oracle at Delphi proclaimed that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother, he ran away from Corinth. At a road crossing, Oedipus, unkowingly, quarreled with and killed his father Laius.

Jocasta did not recognize Oedipus when he reappeared in Thebes. Oedipus saved the city from the sphinx and was married to Jocasta, who bore him four children. They had two sons named Eteocles and Polynices, and two daughters named Antigone and Ismene. When she learned that Oedipus was her son, she begged him to stop searching for the truth, but when he refused she committed suicide by hanging herself.

Work Cited

Sandels,V. "Jocasta." Welcome 2 Greece. Webmistress. 19 June 2006. <http://www.in2greece.com/english/historymyth/mythology/names/jocasta.htm>