Laius
Λάϊος
(Λάϊος).
1. A son of Labdacus, and father of Oedipus. After his father's death he was placed under the guardianship of Lycus, and on the death of the latter, Laius was obliged to take refuge with Pelops in Peloponnesus. But when Amphion and Zethus, the murderers of Lycus, who had usurped his throne, had lost their lives, Laius returned to Thebes, and ascended the throne of his father. He married Jocaste (Homer calls her Epicaste), and became by her the father of Oedipus, by whom he was slain without being known to him. His body was buried by Damasistratus, king of Plataeae. (Hdt. 5.59; Paus. 9.5.2; Apollod. 3.5.5, &c.; Diod. 5.64; comp. OEDIPUS.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.