At the beginning of the play, Oedipus believes that his parents are the king and queen of Corinth, Polybus and Merope. In truth, they are not his natural parents (his natural parents are Laius and Jocasta), they are his adoptive parents. When Oedipus was a baby, Laius and Jocasta gave him to a servant to dispose of in the woods due to the prophecy they'd had that Laius's son would kill him someday; however, this servant gave the baby to another servant, one from the house of the Polybus. And in this way did Oedipus come to be raised by an adoptive family. However, though Oedipus was once told some of this by a drunken man, he does not believe it. Thus, when he received the prophecy that he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother he decided never to return home to Corinth so that he could not fulfill this terrifying future.
However, a messenger arrives from Corinth now to fetch Oedipus home from Thebes because Polybus has died. His adoptive father's fate seems, to him, to confirm that the prophecy was in error, and he scorns both the oracle who delivered the prophecy as well as Apollo, the god she serves.
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