The events included on this chart are followed by numbers corresponding to my sketchy account of the Oedipus myths. As you look at the chart, notice that column one is in tension with column two, column three in tension with column four.

Undoubtedly, columns three and four are more confusing than columns one and two. It might help to know that "autochthonous" means "born or sprung from the earth." "In mythology," Levi-Strauss says, it is a universal characteristic of men born from the Earth that at the moment they emerge from the earth they either cannot walk or they walk clumsily" (814). Because Labdacos, Laius, and Oedipus all have problems walking, as we see in column four, they might confirm (albeit in a roundabout way) the autochthonous origins of humankind.

In column three, however, we see a denial of autochthonous origins, in that monsters sprung from the earth (especially the dragon) are defeated by men who are descended from other men and women. The Greeks would care about this issue because they knew of stories in which the origins of humankind were described as autochthonous. One such story, noted by Pausanias in his famous guidebook to Greece, suggests that the first people were made of earth dried by the sun (see Paus. VIII.29.4).

As Levi-Strauss notes, the Greeks might have found it difficult to reconcile such stories with their knowledge that human beings are "actually born from the union of man and woman" (814). "The Oedipus myth," he concludes, "provides a kind of logical tool which relates the original problem--born from one [Mother Earth] or two [mom and dad]?--to the derivative problem: born from different [earth, soil] or born from same [other flesh-and-blood humans]?" (814). All of this stuff is fascinating--at least I think so--but what really matters here is not the immediate issue of autochthonous vs. non-autochthonous origins; it's the way in which binary oppositions or contradictions create the underlying structure for the myth--and the way in which the myth becomes a "tool" for dealing with, if not resolving, those contradictions.

1. Overrating of blood relations	2. Underrating blood relations	3. Denial of authochthonous origin	4. Confimation of authochthonous origin
Cadmos seeks his sister Europa, ravished by Zeus (1)
		Cadmos kills the dragon (7)
			Labdacos = lame? (11) Laius = left-sided (11)
	Oedipus kills his father (17)
		Oedipus kills the Sphnix (19)
			Oedipus = swollen-foot(?)
Oedipus marries his mother, Jocasta (20)
	Eteocles kills his brother, Polynices (22)
Antigone buries her brother, Polynices, despite prohibition (24)

From here, you can go back to the handout on Saussure and Levi-Strauss or the first page on the Oedipus myth. You can also jump over to the pages on the Zuni origin myth.