Laius

Also known as: Laios · Family: Thebes · Role: former king · First appears: Aeschylus, The Seven Who Fought Against Thebes — Scene 5

Laius, also known as Laios, was the son of Labdacus, heir to Polydorus and Cadmus, and descended from Agenor. As king of Thebes and husband of Jocasta, he received repeated warnings from Apollo at Pythia’s central shrine that he must die childless to save the State, but he disregarded them. Another prophecy declared that a son born to him and Jocasta would kill him; when Oedipus was born, Laius and Jocasta exposed the infant on Mount Cithaeron.

While travelling, Laius encountered Oedipus at a crossroads, and a quarrel ended with Oedipus killing him and his companions without knowing Laius was his father. His death was remembered as the murder of “Laius, son of royal Labdacus,” and, when plague struck Thebes, Apollo declared that the city would find no relief until Laius’s killers were discovered and punished.

As king, Oedipus vowed to identify and avenge Laius’s murderer, banning the unknown killer from homes, speech, sacrifices, and rites. Tiresias eventually revealed that the murderer was Oedipus, who confessed to the killing at the crossroads; the shepherd confirmed that Oedipus had been given out as Laius’s son. Later, Oedipus acknowledged that he had killed his father, while claiming that divine law freed him from guilt because he had not known whom he slew. Laius was also named as an ancestor of Polynices, Oedipus’s son.