Now, when Oedipus had come to manhood, he went to consult the Oracle at
Delphi, as all great people were wont, to learn what fortune had in
store for him. But for him the Oracle had only a sentence of doom.
According to the Fates, he would live to kill his own father and wed
his mother.

Filled with dismay, and resolved in his turn to conquer fate, Oedipus
fled from Corinth; for he had never dreamed that his parents were other
than Polybus and Merope the queen. Thinking to escape crime, he took
the road towards Thebes, so hastening into the very arms of his evil
destiny.

It happened that King Laius, with one attendant, was on his way to
Delphi from the city Thebes. In a narrow road he met this strange young
man, also driving in a chariot, and ordered him to quit the way.
Oedipus, who had been reared to princely honors, refused to obey; and
the king's charioteer, in great anger, killed one of the young man's
horses. At this insult Oedipus fell upon master and servant; mad with
rage, he slew them both, and went on his way, not knowing the half of
what he had done. The first saying of the Oracle was fulfilled.

But the prince was to have his day of triumph before the doom. There
was a certain wonderful creature called the Sphinx, which had been a
terror to Thebes for many days. In form half woman and half lion, she
crouched always by a precipice near the highway, and put the same
mysterious question to every passer-by. None had ever been able to
answer, and none had ever lived to warn men of the riddle; for the
Sphinx fell upon every one as he failed, and hurled him down the abyss,
to be dashed in pieces.