Polybos (1)Polybus

The king of Korinth (Corinth) at the time when Oedipus was brought to the kingdom as an orphan.

Polybos and his wife, queen Polyboea, raised Oedipus as their son; Oedipus thought that Polybos was his natural father until he was faced with the reality of his situation, i.e. that he was adopted by Polybos and that he had accidentally killed his real father while traveling.

When Oedipus was a young man, the oracle at Delphi proclaimed that he would kill his father so Oedipus fled Korinth to insure that Polybos would not die at his hands; years later, after Oedipus had been made king of the city of Thebes, a messenger brought him news that Polybos was dead; Oedipus then realized that his flight from Korinth was part of the oracle’s prophecy and that his adopted father, Polybos, had never been in danger of being killed by “his son.”