This course will focus on the myth of Oedipus, the Theban king who killed his father, married his mother and with her fathered four children. It's open to all students. Special attention will be paid to the themes of prophecy, sex, pollution, and redemption, as well as fratricidal war and whether love, loyalty, and humanity outweigh duty to the state. We will also look at how the story of Oedipus appears in the folk traditions of non-Mediterranean cultures such as Finland.