Oedipus quotes

Every man's own reason is his best Oedipus.

- SirThomas Browne
^5  Oedipus here means riddle-solver. Religio Medici (published1643), pt.1, section 6.

But Oedipus he had the luck For when he hit the ground He bounced up like a jackinabox And knocked his Daddy down.

-Ted (Edward James) Hughes
  'Song for a Phallus'.

Space-ships and time machines are no escape from the human condition. Let Othello subject Desdemona to a lie-detector test; his jealousy will still blind him to the evidence. Let Oedipus triumph over gravity; he won't triumph over his fate.

- Arthur Koestler
  'The Boredom of Fantasy', collected in The Trail of the Dinosaur (1955), pt.2.

Name me one character in literature or drama who can't be described as neurotic† We wouldn't want to know the people we get to see on the stage. How would you like to have Medea for dinner? Or Macbeth slurping your soup? Or Oedipus with his bloody, blinded eyes dripping all over your tablecloth?

- Geraldine Page
Attributed.