untainside. The shepherd pitied the child and gave him to a herdsman from Corinth. The herdsman then gave the child to Polybus and Merope, the childless king and queen of Corinth. They adopted him and raised him as their own. Oedipus grew up thinking he was the prince of Corinth. He heard rumors that he was not the natural son of Polybus and Merope, and he went to consult the oracle of Delphi to find the truth. The oracle repeated the same prophecy that was told to Laius and Jocasta. Thinking that Polybus and Merope were his parents, "Oedipus moves away when he is told his fate" (Jones 41). "Fate" then stepped in and Oedipus met an old man accompanied by several servants at a crossroads. The old man was Laius, on his way to Delphi. Since both men were proud, they refused to step aside so the other could pass. Oedipus lost his temper and in a rage he killed them all, except for one servant who escaped,
             ... I found myself upon the self-same spot where, you say, the king perished ... When in my travels I was come near this place where three roads meet, there met me a herald, and a man that rode in a colt-carriage ... And the old man himself, would thrust me, I, being enraged, strike him who jostled me-- The driver-- and the old man ... He paid though! duly I am not; but in brief, smitten by the staff in this right hand of mine ... out of the carriage straight he rolls down headlong; and I slay them all...(ll. 1104- 1112, 217).
             When Oedipus kills his father, Laius, "it is not out of hatred of his parents" (Vernant 110). Oedipus has no idea who the "stranger" is. All Oedipus realizes is that he has his life in danger. Fate is what has Oedipus murder his father. Not realizing that he had fulfilled half of h
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