King Oedipus
- proper noun
- /kɪŋ ˈɛdɪpəs/
- NSFW
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Rey Edipo
- In Greek mythology, King Oedipus unknowingly fulfills a tragic prophecy.
Examples
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In Sophocles' play, King Oedipus seeks the truth about his past.
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In Sophocles' play, King Oedipus discovers the truth about his lineage and meets a tragic fate.
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Many scholars analyze the fate of King Oedipus as a central theme in classical literature.
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The story of King Oedipus has influenced countless works in drama and psychology.
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Many scholars study the character of King Oedipus in literature classes.
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The character of King Oedipus serves as a prime example of tragic heroism in Greek mythology.
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Scholars often compare the dilemmas faced by King Oedipus to those of modern protagonists.
Synonyms
15
9.9
A king in old Greek stories who does not know he killed his father and married his mother
A famous Greek tragic play about a king who killed his father and married his mother without knowing
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward combination of a title and a proper name: knowing 'king' and 'Oedipus' allows a learner to identify this as the king called Oedipus. While the specific tragic story (killing his father, marrying his mother) is cultural knowledge not derivable from the words, the referential meaning is directly compositional and cross-linguistically common.
Etymology
King Oedipus comes from a famous Greek story about a king who, without knowing, killed his father and then married his mother. Because of that terrible discovery and how it ruined his life, his name now often stands for 'tragic fate' or a person destroyed by events they did not see coming.