Polybus
Polybos
Childless king of Corinth, who raised Oedipus as his own son after a Corinthian herdsman brought him the infant that a Theban herdsman had refused to expose on Mount Cithaeron (Apollodorus *Bibliotheca* 3.5.7; Sophocles *Oedipus Tyrannus* 774–797, 924–949). In Sophocles Polybus dies of old age at Corinth while Oedipus is king of Thebes, and the Corinthian messenger who comes to announce the death is the same old herdsman who had carried the baby across the Isthmus decades before — the dramatic hinge that opens Jocasta's and Oedipus's recognition of the truth (*OT* 924–949 + 1002–1046).
Origin
King of Corinth; husband of Merope (Sophocles) / Periboea (Apollodorus) / Medusa (Pherecydes FGrH 3 F 95 ap. Scholiast on Soph. *OT* 775); adoptive father of Oedipus.
