Introduction
The Pantheon (no name given)
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This story book includes two stories of Oedipus and two stories of Electra. Originally I chose these stories because I have heard so much about the Oedipus and Electra complexes in my psychology classes I wanted to read the stories that they were name after. I finally had a chance to look at these myths as they pertain to a class (mythology and folklore) because they are myths and that is what this whole class is about! This proved to be rather interesting. Most people have indeed heard of Oedipus but have not heard of Electra. It was a challenge making sure that I convey the stories that most people have never even heard of or knew little about, especially in the form that I decided to use. Through the use of poetry I retold these stories.
My first story is about Oedipus, from his birth to his death. Oedipus was born to King Laius, the King of Thebes, who was given an oracle that if his wife, Jocasta, were to bear a son, the son would kill him and lie with Jocasta. These words Laius did not listen to for a son was soon born. In order to save himself, Laius had the child’s ankles pierced and sent him away hoping that it would be the end of the oracle..
Unfortunately, Laius’s plan did not work because the child was adopted by the King and Queen of Corinth where he was named Oedipus for his swollen ankles. When Oedipus grew up he wondered where he came from and decided to go to Delphi to talk to the oracle. However, the oracle told Oedipus not to return to Thebes because if he did he would kill his father and marry his mother. Determined to follow the words of the oracle, Oedipus set out for Corinth. On his way back, he ran into a man whom he killed. Unbeknownst to Oedipus, this man he killed was indeed his father, Laius. And so it happened that the oracle came true despite Laius’s attempts.
My second story is about how Oedipus came to rule over Thebes and marry his mother. After the murder of Lauis, Creon, Lauis’s brother-in-law, took over the rule of Thebes and was given an oracle. He was told that a sphinx would come with a riddle and whoever could solve it should be named King of Thebes, and given Jocasta’s hand. The Sphinx is part woman, lion, and bird who learned her riddle from the Muses. She claimed that whoever solved the riddle would cause her to throw herself off a tower and fall to her death. However, for those who attempted to solve the riddle and were unable to do so would pay with their lives.
My third story is about Electra. She is known for plotting with her brother Orestes to kill their mother. Electra’s father King Agamemnon had gone off to war and when he returned he found that his wife, Clytemnestra, had taken a lover, Aegisthus. Clytemnestra killed her husband and let Aegisthus rule. It is said that Aegisthus feared that Orestes would attempt to avenge his father and take the throne so he was going to be killed, but Electra saved him by sending him away, leaving Electra with her mother and Aegisthus. Electra despised her mother and Aegisthus for what they had done to her father and as the years went on the anger and rage inside her boiled. Electra eagerly waited for her brother’s return in order to avenge their father and she would have no peace within herself until that deed was carried out.
Finally, my last story is after the death of both Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, at the hands of Orestes. While Electra rejoiced in the death of her mother and the lover, Electra now had a new load to bear. As a result of the murder committed, Orestes was plagued by the Erinyes, who are spirits who avenge the crime of things such as bloodshed.
Στορψβοοκ Χοϖερπαγε
(Storybook Coverpage)
Οιδιπους
(Oedipus)
"O god—all come true, all burst to light! O light—now let me look my last on you! I stand revealed at last—cursed in my birth, cursed in marriage, cursed in the lives I cut down with these hands!"
Τηε Σπηινξ
(The Sphinx)
History's most famous riddle: "Which creature in the morning goes on four feet, at noon on two, and in the evening upon three?" She strangled anyone unable to answer for her name came from the Greek word meaning "to strangle."
Ηλεχτρα
(Electra)
"O House of Hades and Persephone! O Hermes of the shades! O potent Curse, and you fearsome daughters of the gods, the Erinyes, who take note when a life is unjustly taken, when a marriage-bed is thievishly dishonored, come, help me, bring vengeance for the murder of my father and send me my brother."
Ηλεχτρα ανδ Ορεστης
(Electra and Orestes)
"We claim to be just and upright. No wrath from us will come stealthily to the one who holds out clean hands, and he will go through life unharmed; but whoever sins and hides his blood-stained hands, as avengers of bloodshed we appear against him to the end, presenting ourselves as upright witnesses for the dead."
-Erinyes
