As one can see from Oedipus Rex and countless other Greek tragedies, the ancient Greeks placed great importance on prophecies. It was widely believed that expert prophets were able to divine the will of the gods. That being the case, their words were taken very seriously indeed.

King Laius is no exception. He received a terrifying prophecy from the Oracle of Delphi, the most famous prophet of all. The prophecy stated that when Laius's newborn son grew up, he would kill his father and marry his mother. The infant was Oedipus, though at this stage of his life, he was unnamed. In order to avoid this harmless baby one day committing patricide and incest, Laius ordered that his son be exposed on a mountainside to die. For good measure, and to leave nothing to chance, he also ordered that the child have his feet (or, in some translations, his ankles) pierced and pinned together. He believed that this would ensure that the boy would not even be able to crawl, let alone grow up to become a murderer. Clearly, Laius wasn't taking any chances; if the baby died, then of course he wouldn't be able to fulfill the prophecy.

Unfortunately for Laius, this turns out not to be the case. The baby Oedipus was taken in by a kindly shepherd who took the boy to the royal palace of Corinth, where he was raised as the son of King Polybus and Queen Merope. It was Polybus and Merope who named the child Oedipus, which means "swollen foot," after the injuries he suffered as a result of having his feet pierced.

In the end, Laius's attempts at thwarting the oracle's prophecy about Oedipus came to nothing, and the consequences for himself—and indeed, for just about everyone else—prove to be catastrophic.