Question

what is the literal meaning of oedipus name? how does this name connect him to his past?

Answer 1

The name Oedipus comes from the Greek Οἰδίπους (Oidípous), usually taken apart as οἰδί- (from οἰδέω / οἴδημα, “a swelling”) + πούς (pous, “foot”) — literally “swollen foot” or “swollen‑footed.”

That literal meaning ties directly to his origin story: when Laius had the infant Oedipus exposed, the child’s ankles were pierced and bound (or otherwise mutilated) so he could be left to die. The shepherd who rescued and later gave the baby to Polybus and Merope reported the child’s hurt/ bound feet, and the foster-parents or others called him Oedipus because of that injury. So the name is a physical marker of the attempt to destroy him and of the tokens that later identify his true birth.

The name also works as a symbolic link to his past and fate: it permanently marks him as the child of that violent episode, signals his abandonment and later wandering, and functions as a kind of ironic foreshadowing (his identity is revealed through those wounded feet even as he pursues — and cannot escape — the path laid out by prophecy).