Tebaide

Speranza Laio, the king of Tebe. While Laio was still too young to rule, his cousins, Amphion and Zethus, grabbed the reins of power. With the help of loyal subjects Laio flees Tebe to save his life, and sought refuge in Pisa, a neighboring kingdom. There King Pelops welcomed him warmly in his castle. When Laio reached manhood, Pelops entrusted his son, Crisippo -- ‘golden horse' -- to him so that he would teach the boy the charioteer's art. King Pelops loved Chrysippus best of all his sons, and wanted him well trained in the arts of war. Laio did as he was asked, but fell hopelessly in love with Crisippo. During the Nemean games, in which the pair competed in the chariot races, Laio kidnaps Crisippo. By then Amphion and Zethus had met with misfortune, so Laio was able to take Crisippo back to Thebes where he kept Chrysippus, by force, as his lover. "I have understanding," he used to say lamely by way of excuse, "but nature forces me." Crisippo did not live long thereafter. Some say that Crisippo killed himself in shame for having been taken against his will. Others blame Pelops' wife, Hippodameia -- the horse tamer. They say Ippodemia was afraid Pelops would appoint Chrysippus successor to the throne, over the heads of Atreus and Thyestes, her own children. So Ippodemia traveled to Thebes with her boys to eliminate the threat. Once there she tried to persuade her own sons to murder Crisippo by drowning him in a well. They back down. Enraged, Ippodemia burst into Laio's bedchamber in the middle of the night, where Laio and Crisippo were sleeping. She took his sword off the wall, and plunged it into the belly of Crisippo. Laio was immediately accused of the deed, but Crisippo had recognized Ippodemia as she fled (on her way to take her own life), and, with his last breath, Crisippo declares Laio innocent. Nonetheless Ippodemia's two sons, Atreus and Thyestes, took over the kingdom of Tebe and threw Laio in a dungeon for taking Crisippo without his consent, an offense which became known in all of Greece as "the crime of Laius." In the meantime, Pelope had gathered his army and marched against Thebes to recover Crisippo. Upon reaching Laio's court he found Laio already imprisoned and Crisippo dead. Pelope, though deeply aggrieved for having arrived too late, spared Laio' life, recognizing that it was overwhelming desire that had driven him to abduct Crisippo. ---- Nevertheless, he put a bitter and terrible curse on Laio, one that was to spread like a darkling cloud over him and his descendants, down to the third generation. The god Apollo, protector of youths and boys, warned Laio well what would happen: "No son are you to have," said Apollo's oracle at Delphi to Laio when he came to inquire why his wife had borne him no children, "for if you do, that boy (EDIPO) will kill his own father and sleep with his own mother." But Laio always driven by passion more than by reason, of course disobeyed, and payed the price with his life. And his son, Oedipus by name, paid more dearly still. CITATION: Editorial Board, World History of Male Love, "Greek Mythology", Laius and Chrysippus, 1999