Oedipus-type Tales in Oceania
Lessa, William A. (January 1956). "Oedipus-type Tales in Oceania". The Journal of American Folklore. 69 (271): 63. doi:10.2307/536945. ISSN 0021-8715.
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Abstract: In the Ulithian story the wife of a chief gives birth prematurelyto a son, whom she discardsinto the sea, and who is found and raisedby a man from a small village at the other end of the island. The boy grows up, and in the course of time meets a woman who seduces him. They soon learn through the adoptive father that the woman is his mother, but despite this knowledge they continue their incestuous relationship.The chief, annoyed at his wife's prolonged and puzzling stay at the menstrualhouse, where she is carrying on the affair, finally insists that she come home. He then notices that she has some scratcheson her face and suspects that they have been made by a lover, so he has all the men of the island assemble and submit to an identity test by placing their fingers alongside the scratches.The youth is revealedas the culprit, but when the chief, who does not know he is his son, tries to murder him, the boy kills his father instead. The mother then goes to live with her son in his village. Having speculated that the resemblanceof this story to the Sophoclean tragedy is either I. fortuitous, 2. the result of a universal psychologicalsituation, or 3. the result of diffusion, I set abouttrying to discoverwhat I could from a considerationof oedipustype tales in general
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MAG: 2315222987 OpenAlex: W2315222987 CorpusID: 164122937
