Daughter of Oedipus in ancient Greek mythology. Hellas: Mythology of Ancient Greece - Oedipus and the Sphinx

One day, the childless king of Thebes, Laius, turned to the Delphic oracle with a question: will he have a child, since he is no longer young? The oracle said that he would have a son, and that son would kill him. The oracle's answer horrified the king. When his son was soon born, he ordered his legs to be pierced and thrown into the forest. But the slave took pity on the pretty boy and handed him over to the shepherd. The shepherd took the baby to King Polybus in Corinth. The childless king took him in and named him Oedipus because his legs were swollen from his wounds.

Oedipus grew up, matured, became strong, but knew nothing about his origin. Once, one of the guests of King Polybus during a feast called him his adopted son. This remark deeply hurt the young man. He wanted to know the secret of his birth. But his adoptive father and mother could not really tell him anything. Then he went to Delphi to the oracle to ask him. The oracle's answer was terrible; Oedipus almost fainted when he heard it.

“You are destined for a terrible fate, Oedipus,” the oracle told him. “You will become the murderer of your father.” Then you marry your own mother and have children from her. They will be cursed by people and gods. Everyone will hate them.

Having learned such a verdict, Oedipus decided not to return to his parents, fearing the oracle's prediction.

He became an eternal wanderer and lived wherever he had to. So he accidentally ended up on the road that led to Thebes. Suddenly he heard the sound of a chariot. The herald who ruled it roughly pushed Oedipus away, threatening him with a whip. Oedipus pushed him back. But the old man sitting in the chariot angrily hit Oedipus on the head with his staff. Then Oedipus became furious, grabbed the staff and killed the old man, then dealt with the herald and servants.

He left no one alive, only one slave managed to escape. After this, Oedipus continued his journey and came to Thebes. He did not consider himself guilty, since he did not attack anyone, did not want to kill anyone, they attacked him, and he defended himself.

There was general despondency in the city. A slave came running and reported the death of King Laius, who was killed by some passer-by. People didn’t know what to think, who did it and why. But besides this misfortune, the city was tormented by another: the terrible Sphinx settled near Thebes on Mount Sphingion and demanded human sacrifices.

Sympathizing with the grief of the citizens, Oedipus wanted to help them. He decided to go to the insatiable Sphinx and find out how to free himself from him.

The Sphinx was a monster with the head of a woman, the body of a lion and giant wings. He scared people with his very appearance. The gods sent him to Thebes, and they decreed that he would disappear when someone managed to solve his riddle, which he asked everyone who passed by Mount Sphingion. The riddle was so incomprehensible that no one could solve it. Then the Sphinx squeezed the unfortunate man in her arms until death.

Oedipus fearlessly approached the Sphinx, and he immediately began to speak:
- Answer me this question, traveler, who walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening? No living being changes like him. But it’s strange that when a creature moves on four legs, it has the least strength and is also very slow. If you answer, you will stay alive, no, you have yourself to blame.

Oedipus thought for a moment:
- Your riddle is not difficult, Sphinx. Here's your answer. This is a man. In infancy, he slowly crawls on four legs, when he grows up, he walks on two, and in old age, when his strength leaves him, he leans on a staff.

As soon as he uttered the answer, the terrible Sphinx flapped its wings, took off and threw itself from a height into the sea. This was what the gods ordered him to do. He had to die if any of the people solved his riddle.
Oedipus returned to Thebes and told the residents about his victory over the Sphinx. They were delighted; they did not know how to thank the stranger who had saved the city from a terrible misfortune. And instead of the murdered Laius, they proclaimed Oedipus their king. Even earlier, they had been told that the king of Thebes would be the one who saved the city and its inhabitants from the Sphinx.

Having become king in Thebes, Oedipus married the widow of King Laius Jocasta, and from her he had two daughters, Antigone and Yemena, and two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices. This is how the prediction of the Delphic Oracle came true: Oedipus killed his own father, married his mother and fathered children with her.

Before Oedipus was born, the oracle predicted that he was destined to kill his father and become the husband of his own mother. Laius, king of Thebes, pierced his son's feet and ordered him to be left to die in the wilderness.
But the child did not die. The shepherd picked up the child and carried it to Corinth, where the king Polyb and his wife Merope, being childless, they accepted and raised Oedipus as their own son. And the boy considered them his parents. And when the young man became a warrior and learned about what was predicted for him, he left Corinth without hesitating for a minute, so as not to bring misfortune to those whom he loved with all his heart, and headed to Thebes. In a gorge at the crossroads of three roads, a certain old man insulted a young man; the angry Oedipus killed him. It was Laius, king of Thebes, his father. Without knowing it, Oedipus fulfilled the first part of the destiny.
Great despondency took hold of Thebes: the king died, and the surrounding area was devastated by the Sphinx.

Sphinx- a winged monster with a lion's body and a woman's head, the creation of Orff, the twin brother of Cerberus. (In all literary works it is mentioned as a male creature, but in the images it has a clearly female body)

The Sphinx asked the same riddle to all passers-by, and killed those who did not give the correct answer. No one could solve this riddle. To save the city, Oedipus went to the Sphinx. The monster asked: “Who walks in the morning on four legs, in the afternoon on two and in the evening on three legs?” “Man,” answered Oedipus, having found the correct solution. And the Sphinx threw himself from a cliff into the sea, because it was decided by the gods that he would die if anyone solved his riddle.
Thus Oedipus freed Thebes from the monster. For this act, Oedipus was proclaimed king of Thebes and received the reigning widow Jocasta as his wife. He had two daughters from her Antigone And Ismena, and two sons, Eteocles And Polynica. Avoiding the prediction, he fulfilled it.
The truth was revealed to him several years later, when a great pestilence attacked the kingdom of the parricide and incestuous man. The soothsayer Tiresias revealed to him why such a punishment was sent down. Jocasta could not bear all the horror that opened before her and committed suicide. Mad with grief, Oedipus blinded himself. The Thebans expelled him from the country, and the former king, accompanied by his daughter Antigone, left to wander through foreign lands.

Oedipus in Athens

After long wanderings, Oedipus finally came to Attica, to the city of Athens. There he asked for shelter from Theseus, then ruling the city. His daughter Ismene found him in Athens to convey the sad news: the sons of Oedipus first ruled together in Thebes. But the youngest son, Eteocles, seized power alone and expelled Polyneices from Thebes. Polyneices went to Argos, found help for himself there, and is now marching with an army against Thebes. The Oracle at Delphi will win victory on whose side Oedipus is. Soon Creon, Jocasta's brother, appeared, ruling together with Eteocles. He tried to persuade Oedipus to return with him to Thebes, but he refused. Then Creon decided to capture Oedipus by force, but the Athenians, under whose protection the unfortunate old man was, did not allow him to do this. Polyneices, who arrived from Argos, tried to win his father over to his side, but Oedipus cursed his sons, who expelled him.
Oedipus died in the sacred grove of the Eumenides, finding rest only in death.

Genealogy:

Cadmus and Harmony: This branch involves the origin of Oedipus and his children from Jocasta.
The beginning began: and in this branch you can see the origin of the Sphinx, who belongs to the most ancient generation of gods.

Since Laius was predicted by Apollo to die at the hands of his own son, he ordered his wife to abandon the newborn on Mount Cithaeron, piercing the tendons at his ankles with a pin. However, the shepherd, who received the child from Queen Jocasta and did not know the true reason for this decision, took pity on the newborn and gave him to the Corinthian shepherd, whom he met in the mountain pastures. He took the child to his childless king Polybus, who named the boy Oedipus (“with swollen legs”) and raised him as his own son. Once, when Oedipus was already an adult youth, some rogue resident of Corinth called him a foundling, and although his adoptive parents did their best to reassure their son and did not reveal to him the secret of his birth, Oedipus decided to go to Delphi to ask the oracle Apollo about his origin. Instead of answering, the oracle gave Oedipus a prophecy that he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Not daring to return to Corinth, which he considered his homeland, Oedipus went to seek happiness in a foreign land. On the way from Delphi, at the crossroads of three roads, he met a noble man in a chariot, accompanied by servants. In the ensuing road quarrel, the stranger hit Oedipus on the head with a heavy scepter, and in response, the enraged young man killed the attacker, his driver and all, as it seemed to him, servants with a road staff. However, one person from Laius’s retinue (for it was he) escaped, returned to Thebes and said that the king had died at the hands of robbers. Oedipus, continuing his journey, approached Thebes and guessed the riddle of the monstrous monster that had settled near the city walls. Sphinx. In gratitude for delivering Thebes from a prolonged disaster, the Theban citizens made Oedipus their king and gave the widow of Laius as a wife. The only witness to the meeting of Oedipus with Laius, the servant who brought the news of the attack of the robbers, after Oedipus’s accession to Thebes, asked Jocasta for leave to go to a distant pasture and did not appear in the city again. This is how the prophecy given to Oedipus at Delphi was fulfilled, although neither he himself nor Jocasta suspected this and for about 20 years they led a happy married life, during which four children were born: Polynices, Eteocles, Antigone, Ismene . Only after a long period of time, when Thebes was struck by a pestilence and the Delphic oracle demanded the expulsion of the unknown murderer Laius from Thebes, Oedipus, in the process of clarifying the circumstances of the long-standing crime, was able to establish whose son he was, whom he killed and with whom he was married. He gouged out his eyes with a gold clasp taken from the dress of the hanged Jocasta and was eventually expelled from Thebes. Antigone, who was devoted to him, despite all the revealed shame, volunteered to accompany the blind father. After long wanderings, Oedipus reaches the sacred grove of the Eumenides in the Attic settlement of Colon, where, according to a long-standing prediction, he is destined to say goodbye to life. To Theseus, who sheltered him, Oedipus reveals the secret that in the future clashes between the Athenians and the Thebans, victory will belong to the side in whose land Oedipus will find his last refuge. Jocasta's brother Creon, who is trying to lure Oedipus back to his homeland, receives a severe rebuff from Theseus. Oedipus also finds no sympathy for Polyneices, who came to him for a blessing in the fight against his brother Eteocles: Oedipus curses both sons who expelled him from Thebes and predicts their mutual death in the upcoming battle. Thunderclaps make it clear to Oedipus that the rulers of the underworld are waiting for him. Guided by some force from above, he himself finds the way to the place of his peace and allows only Theseus to be present at his painless death: Oedipus is swallowed up by the opening of the earth, and the place where this happened remains an eternal secret, which Theseus has the right only before his death to convey to his heir. In this version, the myth of Oedipus is known from the tragedies of Sophocles “Oedipus the King” and “Oedipus at Colonus”. Other sources have preserved earlier or local versions of the myth. In one version of the myth, the parents do not throw Oedipus on Kiferon, but lower him into the sea in an ark, and a wave washes him to the shore near Corinth or Sikyon; here the child is picked up by the wife of the local king, who is busy washing clothes (Schol. Eur. Phoen. 26-28, Hyg. Fab. 66, 67). The method of saving Oedipus, outlined by Sophocles (transferring the child from one shepherd to another), is the invention of the poet; according to other versions, Oedipus is found by shepherds (among whom he grows up) or a random passer-by, i.e. people who don't know about his birthplace. The circumstances of his meeting with Laius and his arrival in Thebes also differ significantly. According to one of the options, Oedipus goes in search of a team stolen from the Corinthian king, whom he considers his father, while he encounters an unknown Laius and kills him, after which he safely returns to Polybus, having removed the belt and sword from the murdered man. Subsequently, having already become the king of Thebes, Oedipus one day drives with Jocasta past the place where the murder took place, reports it to his wife and shows the trophies taken then as proof. Jocasta recognizes in her new wife the murderer of her former one, but does not reveal the secret to him, and especially does not suspect Oedipus of the once planted son (Schol. Eur. Phoen. 1760). In this regard, the version in which the motive of heroic matchmaking is developed in relation to Oedipus is of particular importance: Creon, who remained the ruler of Thebes after the death of Laius, assigns the hand of the widowed queen along with the royal throne as a reward to the one who rids the city of the Sphinx. Oedipus responds to this call and defeats the monster in battle (Eur. Phoen. 45-52). The competition with the Sphinx in mental abilities replaces the initial physical victory over her, probably not earlier than the 7th century. BC, in the era of the heyday of moralizing genres and all kinds of riddles and folklore puzzles.

The versions of the legend about the origin of the children of Oedipus also differ significantly from the Sophocles version. According to the Odyssey (XI 271-280), the gods soon discovered the secret of Oedipus’s incestuous marriage, as a result of which his mother (in Homer she is called Epicaste) hanged herself, and Oedipus continued to reign in Thebes and died, pursued by the Erinyes. The second wife of Oedipus, the Attic author of the beginning. 6th century BC Pherecydes (frg. 48) calls Eurygane and from this marriage produces the four children of Oedipus mentioned above.

The original core of the myth about Oedipus should obviously be considered the ancient folklore motif about the battle between father and son who did not recognize each other, in the same version in which the son defeats the father as a younger and stronger rival. This plot goes back to the period of matrilocal marriage, when the son cannot know his father, because he is brought up in the family of his mother, upon reaching maturity he goes in search of his father, and, not recognizing him, enters into battle with him. On Greek soil, such a motif in its purest form is attested in the myth of the death of Odysseus in the battle with Telegon, his unrecognized son from Kirke; A variant of the same motive can be considered the death of Acrisius at the hands of his grandson Perseus, who grew up in a foreign land.

In the case of Oedipus, matrilocal marriage is replaced by the raising of an abandoned baby far from the place of birth, which ultimately leads to the same result; The usual posthumous “recognition” of the father in such cases in the above-mentioned versions of the myth of Oedipus corresponds to Jocasta’s identification in Oedipus of the murderer of her first husband.

Lit.: Averintsev S.S., On the interpretation of the symbolism of the myth of Oedipus, in the collection: Antiquity and Modernity, M., 1972; Propp V.Ya., Oedipus in the light of folklore, in his book: Folklore and Reality, M., 1976; Robert C., Oidipus, Bd. 1-2, B., 1915; Deubner L., Oedipusprobleme, B., 1942; Webster T.B.L., The tragedies of Euripides, L., 1967; Astier C., Le mythe d'Oedipe, P., 1974; Yarkho V.N., “The Oedipus complex” and “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles, “Questions of Literature”, 1978, No. 10.

IN.N. Yarho

The myth of Oedipus (also developed in ancient literature by Seneca in Oedipus and Statius in Thebaid) was the object of allegorical interpretation in medieval literature. Voltaire (“Oedipus”), Shelley (“Oedipus the King”) and others turned to the image of Oedipus.

Myths of the peoples of the world. Encyclopedia. (In 2 volumes). Ch. ed. S.A. Tokarev.- M.: “Soviet Encyclopedia”, 1982. T. II, p. 657-659.

With today’s work we are finishing the cycle “Myths of Ancient Greece and Rome” in works of painting. I want to thank everyone who took part in the discussion. I also thank everyone for their kind words addressed to me. I'm sorry I didn't say "thank you" to everyone, but this is not due to lack of education or disrespect for you, but simply to save space and time. I really enjoyed reading everything you wrote.
At the end of my message there is something else that is closely related to the topic of our conversation today, although not entirely on topic. Those who wish may not read it.
So, the last story is about King Oedipus. Despite the tragedy of his image, oddly enough, there were few paintings on this topic. So if anyone knows of any other works, please, I would be very grateful.
Oedipus is the king of Thebes, the son of Laius and Jocasta. The oracle predicted to Laius that if he married Jocasta, he would die by the hand of his son. Disobeying the prediction, Laius marries Jocasta. After the birth of his son, fearing for his life, he orders the feet of the newborn Oedipus to be pierced and thrown away. He was found by a Corinthian shepherd.
The shepherd took the boy to Corinth to King Polybus, who raised him as his own son, giving him the name Oedipus, that is, “having swollen feet.”
When he reached maturity, his peers began to accuse him of being adopted, then he went to Delphi and the Delphic oracle through the Pythia predicted to him that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Avoiding Polybus, whom he considered his father, Oedipus went to Thebes. On the road to Delphi, at the crossroads of three roads, he met Laius, entered into an argument with his driver and killed his father.
Appearing in Thebes, Oedipus freed the city from the Sphinx, a winged monster with a lion's body and a woman's head, the creation of Orpheus, the twin brother of Cerberus, which was devastating the surroundings of Thebes. The Sphinx asked the same riddle to all passers-by, and killed those who did not give the correct answer. No one could solve this riddle. To save the city, Oedipus went to the Sphinx. The monster asked: “Who walks in the morning on four legs, in the afternoon on two and in the evening on three legs?” “Man,” answered Oedipus, having found the correct solution. And the Sphinx threw himself from a cliff into the sea, because it was decided by the gods that he would die if anyone solved his riddle.

Gustave Moreau "Oedipus and the Sphinx" 1864

Francois-Xavier Fabre "Oedipus and the Sphinx"

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres "Oedipus and the Sphinx"

Oedipus freed the city from the Sphinx, for which Thebes elected Oedipus as their king, and he married the widow of Laius, that is, his mother Jocasta. From her he had sons - Eteocles and Polyneices and daughters - Antigone and Ismene. As punishment for such a crime - incest (albeit committed unconsciously), the gods sent a pestilence to Thebes and announced through the soothsayer Teresius that the plague would not end until the murderer Laius was expelled from the city. Having learned the truth, his wife Jocasta hanged herself, Oedipus blinded himself in despair. When his sons began to neglect him, he cursed his sons

Benigno Gagnero "Oedipus hands over his children to the gods" 1784

Alexandre Cabanel "Oedipus and Jocasta" 1843

Marcel Andre Bachet "Oedipus (with Ismina and Antigone) condemns Polyneices" 1883

Then the unfortunate blind man left Thebes, accompanied by his daughter Antigone, and after long wanderings died in Colonus, near Athens.

Charles Francois Jalabert "Antigone and Oedipus leaving Thebes" 1842

Fulchran Jean Garrett "Oedipus at Colonus" 1798

Anthony Brodovsky "Oedipus and Antigone" 1828

Jean-Antoine-Theodore Giroud "Oedipus at Colonus" 1788

Per Gabriel Wikinberg "Oedipus and Antigone" 1833

John Peter Craft "Oedipus and Antigone" 1809

After the death of their father, Eteocles and Polyneices agreed to rule alternately for one year, but after a year, Eteocles, instigated by his uncle Creon, Jocasta's brother, refused to give way to his brother, and Polyneices was expelled from Thebes.
Arrived in Argos, where Adrastus ruled, Polynices married his daughter. In return, Adrastus promised to transfer the kingdom to him as an inheritance and agreed to go with him to war against Thebes. The companions of Polyneices made a common oath on the altar of Zeus in Argos to die if they failed to take Thebes. In a duel, Polynices fought with Eteocles, and the brothers killed each other.

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo "Eteocles and Polyneices" 1730

Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, accompanied her father in his voluntary exile to Colon, and after his death returned to Thebes. Here she secretly buried the body of Polyneices, who died in a campaign against Thebes, but remained unburied due to the prohibition of Creon, the new ruler of Thebes. For this violation of his ban, Creon condemned Antigone to be buried alive. This sentence brought her fiancé, Haemon, the son of Creon, into despair, and he killed himself.

Nikiforos Lytras "Antigone and Polyneices" 1865

Frederic Leighton "Antigone" 1882

Jean-Joseph Benjamin Constant "Antigone and Polyneices"

Maria Euphrosyne Spartali (Stillman) "Antigone"

Addition.
What is written below is not required reading, as it is not related to the topics of our community. I confess that I took advantage of my privileges in the community - forgive me! It’s just that the research that I came across a few years ago amazed me so much that I kept tormented - who would I share it with? What is written below is not the fruit of my research, but a brief and fairly free transcription of the work of the outstanding scientist Immanuel Velikovsky.
Immanuel Velikovsky (1895, Vitebsk - 1979, Princeton) - doctor and psychoanalyst, creator of unconventional theories in the field of history, geology and astronomy. Many of his works provoked fierce criticism and scientific controversy. I won't go into these details. Also, I will not give all the evidence of his story, which I bring to your attention - for this you need to read his book: “Oedipus and Akhenaten”. In this book, Velikovsky tries to prove (and proves, in my opinion) that the legend of Oedipus is an echo history that took place. How successful he was is for you to judge.

Let's start with the mysterious creature - Sphyx. This creature, guarding Thebes in Boeotia, was not one of the familiar Greek figures: Minotaur, centaur, Medusa Gorgon, harpy, fury, cyclops. It was the Sphinx and that’s what the Greek tragedians called it. His homeland is Egypt. According to many documents, the Sphinx is an image of the goddess Hathor. The same goddess whose sanctuary was located on the rocks towering above Egyptian Thebes (now Luxor and Karnak), which at one time was the capital of Upper Egypt, and then the entire country. It is worth noting that human sacrifices were made in front of the statue of the goddess, or rather in front of the Sphinx. The Greek Sphinx himself killed travelers, which naturally relates to mythology.
The heyday of the Sphinx cult dates back to the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his wife, Queen Ti. She conceived several times. Ti gave birth to a son, but nothing is known about him - no mention of him, no images of him - until he appeared after the death of his father to claim the throne. Amenhotep's three daughters lived with their parents and were depicted in family portraits.
Nothing is known about the death of Amenhotep. He just suddenly disappeared from the scene. Suddenly it turned out that the sovereign mistress of Egypt was Queen Ti. And she continued to remain so until the beginning of the reign of the next pharaoh - Amenhotep IV - Akhenaten.
Images of Akhenaten and his family have survived, and they are very different from the painting style of previous and subsequent centuries. Akhenaten’s body is especially unusual - a long head, a thin neck, a sagging belly, but the most noticeable deformation is in the hips - they are swollen. And, as we remember, the Greek king was named Oedipus, which means “plump-legged”. Ho, the legend says that Oedipus had plump feet pierced in childhood, and Akhenaten, judging by the images, had plump thighs. But in many languages, foot and leg are not distinguished. In Russian we say: “It fell on his leg,” although in fact it fell on his foot. That's the Greek word for pous, both foot and leg. Namely, this word was used in the riddle of the Sphinx. Now imagine a Greek who saw an image of Akhenaten. What could he call it? Oedipus!

As already mentioned, Akhenaten appeared as if out of nowhere. But what then should the epithet which he applied to himself in the early monuments of his reign mean: “Who survived to live long”? This expression clearly hints that the future king was threatened with death as a child. This is where we should pay attention to the fact that during the period of this eighteenth dynasty, the pharaohs, when appointing an heir, attached oracles to the prophecies. Amenhotep III asked the Theban oracle, for at that time Thebes was the capital. Apparently, guided by the predictions of the Theban oracle, the king's son was raised far from home. Therefore, it is not surprising that, having come to power, Akhenaten expelled a gigantic group of priests and surrounded himself with the priests of Heliopolis, where another oracle was located. And at the same time the Theban Sphinx was thrown from the cliff. The Greek threw himself off the cliff, which is not surprising for the myth.
Interesting detail: the story about the murder of the father. Oedipus killed, but Akhenaten did not kill his father. However, you need to know the customs and beliefs of his subjects - Akhenaten destroyed the most sacred thing for the Egyptians - a memorial tablet with the name of his father, which was tantamount to murder.
Akhenaten freed Thebes from human sacrifice, overthrew the Sphinx and established a religion of love, but also self-adoration. This is what he wrote about himself: "... Son of the Sun, who lives in truth, Akhenaten, great in time." It is curious that in some ancient sources Oedipus was called the son of Helos (the sun). To end Akhenaten’s childhood is an interesting detail. Among the several graves of the nobility of that time, which list their positions and merits, there is the grave of a man about whom not a single line is written. Moreover, this grave is located next to the grave of the High Priest. Judging by some signs, the deceased was a man of low birth and therefore it is not clear why he was buried here. Apparently this man was dear to Akhenaten. However, his name never appears in the court chronicles, which gives us reason to think that this man was associated with Akhenaten before he became a pharaoh. And then the shepherd who found and raised Oedipus comes to mind. Perhaps this commoner played a similar role in the life of Akhenaten?
Now let's deal with the wife and mother. Only one thing must be taken into account in advance - Akhenaten became pharaoh as a child, and only the presence of an imperious, strong-willed mother, whom the boy apparently adored, gave him the opportunity to remain on the throne. So, mother, or as they wrote “Mother of the King and Great Royal Wife” Ti. A strange title, especially considering that Ti maintained the royal harem, which was the privilege of the king’s wife. The pharaoh's wife is the incomparable Nefertiti. Sons: Saanekh and Tutenkhamun. Daughters: Meritatei, Mekataten, Ankhesenpaaten, Neferneferuaton-t asherit, Nefernefrura, Setepenra and the last one - Beketaten. But here’s what’s strange: on all the paintings Beketaten is depicted next to Ti, when the others are next to Nefertiti; Beketaten is referred to everywhere as the Daughter of the King, while the others are called the Daughters of Nefertiti. Further - even more interesting. If we turn to the images of that time, then in the earlier ones Akhenaten and Nefertiti stand on one side, and Ti on the other, but Ti had a double plume and a horned disk on his head; while Nefertiti has a simple hairstyle on her head. But there could not be two Great Queens, and one was forced to leave. Nefertiti left. She simply disappeared from all subsequent images. And above the entrance to the main temple of Akhet-Aten, where three altars were prepared: one for the king, one for Ti, one for Beketaten, there is a bas-relief depicting these three characters. By the way, in one of the early myths about Oedipus, he sends his young wife Eurigynia, the mother of his four children, into exile. And although for the ancient Greek tragedians of the 7th century this story remained, as it were, outside the brackets, the similarities are undeniable. According to some reports, Nefertiti returned to one of the residences of her father, Aya. And here is another interesting nuance - Ai is not only Hefertiti’s father; but also the brother of Queen Ti. Consanguineous marriages and incest were quite common in Egyptian dynasties. Only the son and mother are the only exception. Thus, in modern terms, opposition to Akhenaten and Ti arose. Although Ai occupied the highest positions in the courtyard and, apparently, enjoyed unlimited trust. The matter is nearing its end; The story becomes more and more confusing, and there are more and more coincidences.

Saanekht, the son of Akhenaten married his sister - Meritaten; eldest daughter Nefertiti. His brother Tutenkhamun married another sister, Ankhesenpaaten. That is, two brothers and two sisters enter the scene - a motif that is present in Greek history. True, they were not married to each other, and this could not have happened: Greek customs were noticeably different from Egyptian ones.
Akhenaten appears everywhere with Saanekht, apparently preparing him for the role of heir. But events begin to accelerate: the situation in Egypt is getting worse, neighbors are taking away Egyptian lands. The eternal question arises - who is to blame. In this situation, that part of the clergy, which during the reforms carried out by Akhenaten, was removed from the “feeding trough” and vegetated far from Thebes, has its weighty word. They cooperate with Ai and Saanekht and, with the help of the soothsayer Amenhotep, son of Hanu, declare Akhenaten’s guilt. Let us remember the blind soothsayer Teresia and compare him with the Egyptian; and we can even talk about physical resemblance. The portrait of Amenhotep, son of Hapu has come to us as an image of a young man with long hair; combed the way commoners combed their hair in Egypt. But the myth about Teresia says: that because he killed a female snake, the gods turned him into a woman for a while as punishment.
The Egyptian himself, unlike Teresius, was not blind (at least there is no such data, but he was the patron saint of the blind). Now about another blind man - about Oedipus. who gouged out his eyes out of grief. As I already wrote at the beginning of these notes, I will not cite all of Velikovsky’s calculations, but he proves that there is every reason to say that Akhenaten was blind. The end of Akhenaten was terrible - the palace coup was a success, his son Saanekht together with his uncle Ai came to power, Akhenaten, blind and having lost everything, was sent into exile somewhere on the border lands.
What about family? Let's start with the sons of Akhenaten's two brothers: Saanekht and Tutenkhamun. The first began to rule while his father was still alive, but removed from power. Rules for only 3 years. Then Tutenkhamun became king of Egypt, who ruled for four years and died. Scientists discovered two graves and convincingly proved that these were the burials of brothers. The tomb of Saanekht is a crypt roughly carved into the rock, in which there were things with the names of Akhenaten and Ti, but without the name of whose grave it was, with a body placed in someone else's sarcophagus, thrown so hastily that the coffin fell and the mummy almost fell out. Touching poems were found scrawled on gold foil, but also without a name. Well, we all know about Tutenkhamun’s luxurious tomb. Although during the years of his reign he did nothing to be buried with such honors. There was only silent talk about some kind of war, but nothing was said with whom. And one more interesting detail. The only case in the entire history of Egypt is that the king following Tutenkhamun, and he became Ai, depicted himself near the tomb of the deceased king. It is enough to remember the story of the sons of Oedipus and the similarity of the stories will be amazing.
Further - more. Those. even more mysterious. In the story of Oedipus, Atigone, for violating Creon’s ban and performing a funeral rite over her brother’s body, was sentenced by him to imprisonment in a cave, which was located next to the place where she buried her brother. She was left with food for several days, and then she had to die a slow and painful death.
A strange burial was discovered a few hundred meters from Saanekht's grave. At a depth of about 6 feet there was a cave filled with rocks. It contained quite a lot of different utensils. Basically, these were small things: several vessels with inscriptions: bread, grain, grapes, etc., jugs for storing water, women's scarves made of very light material, which were used as rags. A piece of fabric was found with a hand-embroidered inscription: “Long live King Nofer,” and Nofer is the middle name of Saanekht. There were also beads and decayed flower wreaths. And most importantly - the death mask of a young woman. There is no reason to say that this is Saafer’s sister-wife Meritaten, but all this is very reminiscent of the fate of Antigone.
Jocasta committed suicide, finally saying: “... I cut off my silver curls and let them fall from grief into a sea of ​​​​tears...”. The mummy of Queen Ti was not found; in the crypt, which is rather poor, are the remains of her son Saanekht. But even from this miserable grave, her body was thrown out, the hearse was smashed and the inscriptions were knocked down. Based on the knowledge of how the Egyptians treated the afterlife and suicide, it can be assumed that Princess Ti committed suicide. And in the grave of her son Tutenkhamun, a small box with a lock of hair was found. The inscription on the box said that this was the hair of Princess Ti.
What about the two main characters of these stories, how were they buried? And no one knows this. The only thing that is known is that they were buried in a foreign land, but where exactly is a mystery shrouded in darkness.
We could put an end to this, but still the story would be incomplete if we did not put it into a chronological framework.
So, the time of Akhenaten’s reign is determined differently by two groups of Egyptologists. Some believe that the 17th year of his reign was the last, others that the 21st. Their fellow historians, but already specialists in Ancient Greece, also split into two camps. Some agree with the statement that “Tiresias comes to the king to tell him a secret that he had kept for 16 years,” while others are sure that “Twenty years have passed since then and a disaster has struck the city.” Don't find the numbers surprisingly similar. Are the historians in agreement?