MARIE DELCOURT (1891–1979) was Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Liège for more than three decades and the author of many works, including translations, biographies, and studies in the mythology and religion of ancient Greece.MALCOLM DEBEVOISE is a three-time winner of the French-American Foundation Prize for nonfiction and has translated more than forty works from French and Italian in all branches of scholarship.

“Marie Delcourt’s book about the ritual origins of the Oedipus myth is a masterpiece. It reveals the archaic foundations of human societies and remains as enlightening and useful as it was when it first appeared seventy years ago.”—LUCIEN SCUBLA, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and author of Giving Life, Giving Death: Psychoanalysis, Anthropology, Philosophy

• Contents Foreword-Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge Translator’s Note Introduction Chapter 1. Exposure of the Infant Chapter 2. Murder of the Father Chapter 3. Victory over the Sphinx Chapter 4. The Riddle Chapter 5. Marriage to a Princess Chapter 6. Incest with the Mother Endings Myths and Memory Appendix 1. The Pisander Scholion and Related Summaries Appendix 2. Legends and Cults of Twin Children Appendix 3. Animal Tales in Greece Appendix 4. The Religious Significance of Spoils in the Homeric Poems Notes Addenda Index of Passages Cited Index

MARIE DELCOURT (1891–1979) was Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Liège for more than three decades and the author of many works, including translations, biographies, and studies in the mythology and religion of ancient Greece.MALCOLM DEBEVOISE is a three-time winner of the French-American Foundation Prize for nonfiction and has translated more than forty works from French and Italian in all branches of scholarship.

“Marie Delcourt’s book about the ritual origins of the Oedipus myth is a masterpiece. It reveals the archaic foundations of human societies and remains as enlightening and useful as it was when it first appeared seventy years ago.”—LUCIEN SCUBLA, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and author of Giving Life, Giving Death: Psychoanalysis, Anthropology, Philosophy

• Contents Foreword-Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge Translator’s Note Introduction Chapter 1. Exposure of the Infant Chapter 2. Murder of the Father Chapter 3. Victory over the Sphinx Chapter 4. The Riddle Chapter 5. Marriage to a Princess Chapter 6. Incest with the Mother Endings Myths and Memory Appendix 1. The Pisander Scholion and Related Summaries Appendix 2. Legends and Cults of Twin Children Appendix 3. Animal Tales in Greece Appendix 4. The Religious Significance of Spoils in the Homeric Poems Notes Addenda Index of Passages Cited Index

MARIE DELCOURT (1891–1979) was Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Liège for more than three decades and the author of many works, including translations, biographies, and studies in the mythology and religion of ancient Greece.MALCOLM DEBEVOISE is a three-time winner of the French-American Foundation Prize for nonfiction and has translated more than forty works from French and Italian in all branches of scholarship.

“Marie Delcourt’s book about the ritual origins of the Oedipus myth is a masterpiece. It reveals the archaic foundations of human societies and remains as enlightening and useful as it was when it first appeared seventy years ago.”—LUCIEN SCUBLA, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and author of Giving Life, Giving Death: Psychoanalysis, Anthropology, Philosophy

• Contents Foreword-Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge Translator’s Note Introduction Chapter 1. Exposure of the Infant Chapter 2. Murder of the Father Chapter 3. Victory over the Sphinx Chapter 4. The Riddle Chapter 5. Marriage to a Princess Chapter 6. Incest with the Mother Endings Myths and Memory Appendix 1. The Pisander Scholion and Related Summaries Appendix 2. Legends and Cults of Twin Children Appendix 3. Animal Tales in Greece Appendix 4. The Religious Significance of Spoils in the Homeric Poems Notes Addenda Index of Passages Cited Index