Instead, the servant leaves the baby outside to let the Gods decide what will become of him. He is eventually given to the King of Corinth who was childless. Hitting adolescence, Oedipus also consults an oracle who tells him he will mate with his own mother and kill his father. In order to avoid this, Oedipus leaves Corinth, thinking he will protect his parents from the prophecy. On his way from Corinth to Thebes, Oedipus has an argument with a chariot driver regarding the right of way, a fight ensues, and Oedipus kills the other man. Oddly, the other driver was Laius, his real father, thus fulfilling part of the prophecy. Continuing his trip, Oedipus solves the infamous riddle of the Sphinx -- "What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the...

The prophecy is thus fulfilled.
Oedipus the adult is a great man within the community of Thebes, king, intelligent, and renowned in that he solved the riddle of the sphinx. He initially appears to be heroic -- he left Corinth out of what he considered to be a moral obligation to save the parents he loved. He was able to free the city of Thebes from its bondage to the Sphinx, thus ending a tyrannical oppression. Oedipus, however, seems to continually take the weight