Editing Oedipus Rex (section)

=== Birth of Oedipus ===
When Laius's son is born, he consults an [[oracle]] as to his fortune. To his horror, the oracle reveals that Laius "is doomed to perish by the hand of his own son." Laius binds the infant's feet together with a pin and orders Jocasta to kill him. Unable to do so to her own son, Jocasta orders a servant to expose the infant on a mountaintop. The servant, moved by pity, gives the child to a shepherd, who unbinds the infant's ankles, and names him [[Oedipus]], "swollen foot". The shepherd brings the infant to [[Corinth]], and presents him to the childless king [[Polybus of Corinth|Polybus]], who raises Oedipus as his own son.