Ancient Greeks were great adepts in creating mythology in which supernatural elements took part generously. Just like human beings. In their mythologies, gods, goddesses, demons, mythical animals took part in a natural manner. The Greek and Indian mythologies are quite similar in the play of supernatural elements. The main difference perhaps is that Indian mythologies always end up in the realisation of the divinity and the participants are blessed with happiness at the end.

But in Greek mythology, the bad and the wicked people were destroyed either by the wrath of the god or as natural justice. While the Greek mythology lived through the ages it did not make any significant impact on the lives of the people, except marginally. But the Hindu mythology not only lived through the ages in a highly dynamic way but also made great impact on society. Even today Hindu mythology is a living force because its main theme is the triumph of the good over the evil.

Greek Mythology:
One of the most popular stories in ancient Greek mythology is the story concerning a king by name Oedipus. He was a king of Thebes, a kingdom in ancient Greece. His father was king Layas; his mother was Iocoste. They were living happily, and a son was born to them. At that time a supernatural voice announced that king Layas would be killed by his own son. The king became sad and consulted his Ministers and they advised the king to kill his son. The king accepted their advice and injured the boy severely in the leg by sharp nails and abandoned him in the forest to die. The king Layas returned to his capital happily that the danger to his life from his son had been averted.

The city State Corinth was ruled by a king named Polybus. A shepherd boy who was passing by took pity on this injured boy in the jungle. Because of the injury his legs were swollen. Swelling is also known as Oedema. The shepherd boy took this Oedema stricken boy to the queen and she brought him up. As he had Oedema, she called him Oedipus. When he became a young man he wanted to find out his real father and mother. He met king Layas and for some reason, a quarrel arose between the two. Both of them did not know their mutual relationship. Then they decided to fight out and decide the issue. In the fight between the two, Oedipus who was a strong young man killed king Layas. Even at that time he did not know the he had killed his real father.

Riddle solved:
When he was proceeding further, he was accosted by a female demon in the form of a sphinx. Usually the sphinx is a mythical creature popular in ancient civilisations, particularly in Egypt. In Greek mythology the sphinx had a head of a woman, body of a lion with the wings of a bird. She stopped Oedipus and told him about the tyrannical rule by the queen and asked him “to kill her if he can. Before you go to the queen you have to solve the riddle I give you. If you solve it I will allow you to proceed further or else I will kill you and eat you”. Without any other plan to escape from the clutches of the sphinx, he agreed to her condition.

The riddle she asked was to identify the creature who walks on four legs in the morning, on two legs in the noon and on three legs in the evening. So far nobody had given a proper reply to this riddle and many had become victims of demon. Oedipus solved the riddle — Man as a boy walks with two hands and two legs (crawls); in the youth he walks on two legs and during the old age takes the help of a walking stick in addition to two legs. As soon as he solved this riddle, the demon vanished.

People gathered around this young man, requested him to become the king and marry the queen - widow Iocoste. He did that. At that time also he did not know that the queen was his own mother. Oedipus and Iocoste lived happily as king and queen and begot four children of which Antigone was one.

Once there was a severe famine in Thebes and thousands of human beings and animals died for want of food and water. The people propitiated their gods and goddesses. But the suffering of the people did not stop. At that time, a supernatural voice announced that the famine is due to the wrath of our protective goddess of Thebes, due to the unpardonable crime of Oedipus marrying his own mother and begetting children through her.

Both the king and the queen were dumb shocked and the entire population blamed them for this heinous act. Finding no other way, the queen committed suicide but Oedipus got his both eyes removed as a punishment. He handed over his kingdom to his cousin and left for an undisclosed place. It is said that the earth opened in and devoured Oedipus, thus sending him to underworld (Patala) from where he would never come again. Thus tragically ended the lives of Oedipus and his mother – cum - wife. Such a relationship is unthinkable of in Indian context.

That is the reason why not even a single instance of this worst relationship is found in any literature or mythology. It is also of interest to find that there is no original, single idiomatic word in Sanskrit to explain this abhorring relationship. It only indicates that this relationship was absent in ancient Indian tradition. The word “Thayiganda” (mother's husband) used nowadays in Kannada is of recent origin. However, this occurs in Purandaradasa's poems. The antiquity of the word Madarchuth (Persian or Urdu) is also not known. From all these, Oedipus stands condemned.

Oedipus complex:
The famous Psychologist Fraeud has developed a concept called “Oedipus complex” which the Oxford Dictionary explains as “a sexual complex held by Psychologists of the Fraeudian school to influence the child in regard to the parent of the opposite sex”. To us Indians, it is a culture shock.