When Oedipus is a young man, he strikes out on his own. In his travels, he is walking down a road when a man on a cart wants to pass. In the process the man runs over Oedipus's foot causing him great pain. Oedipus then fights with and kills the man, not knowing the man is his true father, the king of Thebes, Laios. Oedipus continues on his journeys and comes to Thebes. The city is plagued by a Sphinx, a monster who kills anyone unable to answer its riddle: "What creature walks on four legs at dawn, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?" Oedipus answers the Sphinx that the creature is man, who crawls as a baby, walks upright as a man, and uses a cane in old age. The Sphinx is so upset it jumps into the sea and Oedipus becomes the hero of Thebes.

Iocaste, the widow of Laios and queen of Thebes, marries Oedipus, not knowing that she is his mother. The couple live happily and have four children, two girls and two boys. Then a plague strikes the city and Oedipus goes to the oracle to find out how to end the plague. The oracle tells him the truth of his birth and that he has killed his father. Oedipus is so upset by what he has done that he blinds himself, and his mother/wife, Iocaste, commits suicide. One of Oedipus's daughters, Antigone leads her father in exile from the city to another city called Colonus where he eventually dies. In the meantime Creon, Iocaste's brother, takes over rule of the city while the two boys and one sister remain.