Laius, Oedipus' father, kidnapped and raped the young boy Chrysippus and was then cursed by Chrysippus' father, Pelops. The weight of this curse bore down onto Oedipus himself. At his birth, it was prophesied that he would kill his father. Seeking to avoid such a fate, Laius had the infant's ankles pierced with nails and had him exposed (placed in the wilderness to die). His servant, however, betrayed him, handing the boy instead to a shepherd who presented the child to King Polybus and Queen Merope (or Periboea) of Corinth, who raised him as their own son.

At a party thrown by King Polybus, a drunk guest called Oedipus a bastard. Seeking to confirm his parentage, not believing the man, Oedipus sought out the Oracle. Instead of telling him his parentage, the Oracle related the same prophecy as was told to his father; that he would kill his father and marry his mother. After descending the mountain, he met on the road to the oracle an unarmed man, riding a chariot, on his own pilgrimage. The man in the chariot demanded that Oedipus stand aside so he could pass. They argued, and Oedipus killed the stranger. The man was King Laius, Oedipus' father.

Oedipus decided that the drunkard at the party was lying, and decided not to return to home in order to avoid Polybus. As he traveled, Oedipus encountered a mystical creature that was terrorizing Thebes. Oedipus saved the city by answering the riddle of the Sphinx ("What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?") and was rewarded with the now-vacant throne of Thebes and the widowed queen Jocasta's hand in marriage. In Sophocles' play, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus has four children with Jocasta, though this may have been a plot device he employed, as incest was not part of the original myth.

Within a short time, divine signs of misfortune and pollution began to appear in Thebes, which caused the king to seek out their cause. Finally, the seer Teiresias revealed to Oedipus that Oedipus himself was the source of the pollution. Oedipus discovered he was really the son of Laius and Jocasta and that the prophecy had indeed come to pass. Jocasta commited suicide and Oedipus blinded himself by forcing her brooch pins into his eyes.

From Wikipedia

Two songs have been written with the title, Oedipus Rex by Tom Lehrer, and Oedipus by Regina Spektor.

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