Laius

Family: Thebes · Role: son of Labdacus · First appears: Book 9 · Chapter 5

As a boy, Laius was left in the care of Lycus, and Labdacus entrusted both him and the kingdom to Nycteus. When Laius became king and married Jocasta, an oracle warned that a son of theirs would kill him; Laius exposed their son, Œdipus. The warning was fulfilled: Œdipus killed Laius and married Jocasta.

At the Cross-roads, Œdipus murdered Laius; Damasistratus, king of Platæa, later found the bodies and buried them. The account also names Sphinx as Laius’s illegitimate daughter.

Relationship record

Life events

• After the oracle’s warning, Laius exposed Œdipus.(Book 9 · Chapter 5)
  • With: Jocasta Œdipus
  • “When Laius was king and wedded to Jocasta, the oracle at Delphi told him that he would die at the hands of his son, if Jocasta bare him one. And that was why he exposed Œdipus,”
• Œdipus killed Laius and married Jocasta.(Book 9 · Chapter 5)
  • With: Œdipus Jocasta
  • “who was fated after all when he grew up to kill his father. He also married his mother.”
• Œdipus murdered his father Laius at the Cross-roads.(Book 10 · Chapter 5 · 📍 Cross-roads)
  • With: Œdipus
  • “where they say Œdipus murdered his father.”
• Damasistratus found Laius’s corpse and buried it.(Book 10 · Chapter 5 · 📍 Cross-roads)
  • With: Damasistratus
  • “They say that Damasistratus, who was king of Platæa, came across their corpses and buried them.”

Book 9 · Chapter 5

• parent: Labdacus (Parent-to-child direction.) “the boy dying also not long after Lycus became guardian for Laius the son of Labdacus”
• guardian: Nycteus (Nycteus was entrusted with guardianship of the young Laius.) “whom as well as the kingdom he entrusted to Nycteus”
• guardian: Lycus (Lycus was guardian for Laius.) “Lycus became guardian for Laius the son of Labdacus”
• married with Jocasta (Marriage is explicit.) “When Laius was king and wedded to Jocasta”
• child: Œdipus (Œdipus is Laius's son.) “Œdipus, who was fated after all when he grew up to kill his father”

Book 9 · Chapter 26

• child: Sphinx “It is also said that she was the illegitimate daughter of Laius”
• married with Jocasta “the oracle at Delphi only referred to his wife Epicaste and male children by her”

Book 10 · Chapter 5

• child: Œdipus (Laius is identified contextually as the father whose murder by Œdipus is described.) “As you go on from thence you will come to the Cross-roads, where they say Œdipus murdered his father. There are records indeed of the woes of Œdipus in all parts of Greece. So it seems it was fated. For directly he was born they pierced his ankles, and exposed him on Mount Cithæron in Platæa. He was brought up at Corinth and the country near the Isthmus. And Phocis and the Cross-roads here were polluted by his father’s blood. Thebes has attained even more celebrity from the marriage of Œdipus and the injustice of Eteocles. To Œdipus the Cross-roads here and his bloody deed there caused all his subsequent woes, and the tombs of Laius and his attendant are in the very middle of the place where the 3 roads meet, and there are unhewn stones heaped up on them.”
• with Damasistratus (Damasistratus found and buried Laius's corpse.) “They say that Damasistratus, who was king of Platæa, came across their corpses and buried them.”

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Extracted from the original text of Pausanias' Description of Greece. Made with Rho MD.