Creon, who was ruling the city since the death of his brother Laius, had promised the crown and the hand of the widowed queen Jocasta to anyone who would free the city from the ravages of the monster. Oedipus undertook the challenge and confronted the Sphinx. To the question “Which animal walks on four legs in the morning, two at midday, and three in the evening?” Oedipus answered, “Man.” In his infancy he crawls on all fours, in his maturity he walks on two legs, and in the evening of his life he walks with a cane. When the Sphinx heard this answer, she threw herself into the sea and was drowned. Oedipus returned to Thebes, married the queen, and ruled the city for more than twenty years. From their union came two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices, and two daughters, Antigone and Ismene. Oedipus’ reign in Thebes was prosperous, and he was honored as a just and devoted sovereign.
In Greek mythology there is often some tragedy in the life of the hero. For example, both Hercules, the great destroyer of monsters, and Theseus, who slew the Minotaur, perished tragically. Among others, Erichthonius, who as king of Athens introduced the worship of Athene and the use of silver, was killed by a thunderbolt from Zeus. The hero's achievement, which is supported by one god, offends another. His superhuman exploit makes him appear godlike. The gods are notoriously jealous. The hero must pay a price for his hubris, since he is a mortal after all.
Oedipus is regarded as a hero for his conquest of the Sphinx. The Erinyes, as the fates were called, were lying in wait. A terrible plague ravaged the city of Thebes. There was drought and famine. When the oracle at Delphi was consulted, he said that the scourges would not cease until the murderer of Laius was discovered and driven from the city. Oedipus vowed to find the culprit. To his surprise, his investigations revealed that he was the guilty one. He had killed his father on the highway to Thebes and, unwittingly, had married his mother.
Overwhelmed by shame, Jocasta hanged herself. Oedipus put out his own eyes. Then, accompanied by Antigone, his faithful daughter, he left Thebes and became a wanderer. After many years he found a final refuge in the town of Colonus near Athens. There, reconciled to his fate and purified of his crimes, he disappeared mysteriously from the earth. The implication is that he was taken to the abode of the gods, as befits a Greek hero. Having provided a last haven for Oedipus, Colonus became a sacred place.
The legend relates the end of this unhappy family. Oedipus’ two sons had agreed to share the rulership of the kingdom alternately. But when the time came for Eteocles to turn the power over to his brother, he refused. Polyneices gathered together an army of Aegeans and laid siege to Thebes. In the course of the battle the two brothers slew each other. Creon, who then became ruler of the city, decreed that Polyneices should be treated as a traitor and his body left unburied. Antigone defied the decree out of love for her brother and buried him with honors. For this disobedience she was condemned to be buried alive. Her sister Ismene shared her fate.
Looking back to the cases of Margaret and Robert, we can see that their lives did not parallel the history of Oedipus. Neither was guilty of the crimes of incest and parental murder, despite the fact that both were involved in oedipal situations in their childhood. How they avoided the fate of Oedipus is explained by Sigmund Freud, the first person to recognize the importance of the oedipal situation and the significance of the Oedipus story for modern man. In the next section we will examine the psychoanalytic view of the development of the Oedipus complex.
The Oedipus Complex
Freud was drawn to the story of Oedipus because he believed that the two crimes of Oedipus, the killing of his father and the marriage to his mother, coincide with “the two primal wishes of children, the insufficient repression or the reawakening of which forms the nucleus of perhaps every psychoneurosis.”2 This nucleus became known as the Oedipus complex. Earlier, Freud had written, “It may be that we are all destined to direct our first sexual impulses towards our mothers and our first impulses of hatred and violence towards our fathers, our dreams convince us that we were.”3 If this were so, then the fate of Oedipus would be the common fate of all mankind. Freud recognized this possibility, for he said, “His fate moves us because it might have been our own, because the oracle laid upon us the very curse that rested on him.”4
In psychoanalytic thinking all children are considered to go through an oedipal period, from about the ages of three to seven. In this period they have to deal with feelings of sexual attraction to the parent of the opposite sex, and jealousy, fear, and hostility toward the parent of the same sex. The complex also includes varying amounts of guilt associated with these feelings. Otto Fenichel says, “In both sexes, the Oedipus complex can be called the climax of infantile sexuality, the erogenous development from oral eroticism via anal eroticism toward genitality.”5
It is important for our study to understand what is meant by infantile sexuality and how it differs from the adult form. The term “infantile sexuality” actually refers to all sexual manifestations from birth to about six years of age. The erotic pleasure a baby derives from nursing or thumbsucking is considered to be sexual in nature. Between the ages of three and five, childhood sexuality becomes focused on the genitals. In the fifth year, according to Freud, at the height of development of childhood sexuality, that focus comes close to that reached in maturity. The difference between childhood and adult sexuality is that the former lacks the elements of penetration and ejaculation, the reproductive aspects of sexuality. Childhood sexuality is, therefore, a surface phenomenon. Freud described it as phallic rather than genital. This distinction is valid if we recognize that phallic refers to a rise in excitation rather than a discharge. Adult sexuality is characterized by its emphasis upon the latter. However, the feelings associated with childhood sexuality can hardly be distinguished from those relating to the adult form.
Although the Oedipus complex is regarded as a normal development for all children in our culture, this does not mean that it is biologically determined. We must distinguish between two different phenomena. One is the preliminary blooming of sexuality, which occurs at this time and which is manifested in masturbatory activities and a heightened sexual curiosity. It is also reflected in the child's sexual interest in the parent of the opposite sex. Evidence for this early blooming is provided by patients’ dreams and memories. It can be confirmed by any observant parent, since children make no effort to hide their sexual feelings. And medical research has shown that there is an increased production of sexual hormones during this period. This preliminary awakening of sexuality is generally followed by a quiescent period, the latency period, which lasts until puberty, when both hormonal and sexual activity begin to assume their adult form. Another biological phenomenon parallels this double flowering of sexuality, and that is the development of teeth. We have two sets of teeth; the first, or baby teeth, reach their fullness at about the ages of six to seven, when they fall out and are replaced by the permanent teeth. It is also around this time, six years of age, that most children begin their formal education.
The other phenomenon is the creation of a triangle in which the mother is a sexual object for both father and son, or the father a sexual object for mother and daughter. When this happens, as it invariably does in our culture, we have to deal with the parent's jealousy and hostility to the child. It may be quite natural for a boy to feel some jealousy over his father's sexual relation with his mother. This jealousy in no way threatens the father. It is quite another story when the father becomes jealous of his son because he senses that his wife favors or prefers the boy. This situation is fraught with real danger for the child. In the same way the mother's jealousy of her daughter poses a serious threat to the girl. This aspect of the Oedipus complex is culturally determined. “In this sense,” according to Fenichel, “the Oedipus complex is undoubtedly a product of family influence.”6 Its specific form will depend, therefore, upon the dynamics of the family situation.
Another element, namely, sexual guilt, also enters into this complex. Although all parties are involved in the triangle, the child is made to feel guilty about his sexual feelings and behavior. He acted innocently, following his instinctual impulses, but in the parents’ eyes any sexual expression by the child is “bad,” “dirty,” or “sinful.” Parents project their sexual guilt upon the child. Thus, the Oedipus complex of the child generally reflects the unresolved oedipal conflicts of his parents. The child's feeling of