In this Post I seek to emphasize the care we should take with our feet. For this, I will use the Greek myth of Oedipus that we have very present because Sigmund Freud used it to support an integral part of his psychoanalytic theory. Of course, there is no direct relationship between the care we should take with our feet and this myth, but I do intend to keep in mind that the feet -like any other part of the body- should be cared for with care and attention.
There are several versions of the Oedipus myth. I will describe some of them, extracting the most relevant of each story, which will lead us to the objective of this Post, the care of our feet.
Laius upon learning the oracle that his son would kill him and marry his own mother, let his wife Yocasta know that they would have no children, but Yocasta managed to beget one and so the baby was born, which Laius immediately ordered to be taken away. However, Yocasta’s plea made Laius allow one of his employees to take him away and hang him by his feet, so that he would not have to be killed, in one of the trees on the slopes of Mount Cytheron, until he died. Another version tells that Laius asked one of his henchmen to take him to Mount Cytheron and to lacerate the soles of the baby’s feet so that the bleeding would attract the beasts and devour him, so that he would not be killed by the envoy.
In all the versions of the myth, the baby was abandoned on Mount Cytheron. In one of them -as I already mentioned- it is narrated that by orders of his father Laius, the soles of his two feet are pierced as a sign that he should not walk and therefore should die devoured by the animals; in another version, the baby was hung by his two lower limbs, to die dehydrated. However, in all of them the baby did not lose his life because he was rescued and was able to survive to fulfill the oracle.
Mount Cytheron was crisscrossed by hundreds of paths that generally formed an immense labyrinth. It was said that whoever entered any of the paths that led to its slopes and entered it, would never be able to get out. Daedalus was inspired by this inextricable mountain to design the Labyrinth that King Minos asked him to build on the island of Crete.
Two days after the baby had been abandoned on the slopes of that mountain, a shepherd who was taking his sheep to graze nearby noticed something hanging from a tree in the distance and was able to unmoor and unhook the baby, who was quite dehydrated and with swollen feet. This man knew that King Polybius could not beget children and took him to his royal palace, which adopted him as a son. He named him Oedipus, which means the one with swollen feet.
It is well known the following part of the story that continued to fulfill the oracle.
Oedipus, as an adult, receives the oracle at Delphi, which specifies that he would kill his father and have sexual relations with his mother. This prophecy alters him emotionally and he flees from his adoptive father and mother to avoid realizing these horrendous premonitions. From these omens he wanders and walks for a long time and due to certain circumstances, Oedipus meets Laius, his biological father, and because of a quarrel he kills him. He continues walking for some time, and following his destiny, Oedipus discovers the enigma of the Sphinx and is rewarded for it by marrying Yocasta, which was the prize offered in Thebes for such a discovery, also naming him King of Thebes. With Yocasta, his mother, he had 2 daughters and a son. Thus, Oedipus fulfills the oracle also in that part.
Some time later, Oedipus discovers that he killed his father and that Yocasta was his mother. As self-punishment he cuts out his eyes, becoming totally blind, and takes to walking in this part of his life, returning to Mount Cytheron, which he enters, losing himself in its labyrinthine paths. After this foray of Oedipus into Mount Cytheroon, he is never heard from again.
An outstanding aspect regarding the subject at hand, is that when Oedipus receives the oracle at Delphi, that he would kill his father and have sexual relations with his mother, he flees from his adoptive father and mother to avoid realizing those horrendous premonitions, wandering and walking for many months, that his feet became swollen and lacerated.
After realizing that his oracle had been fulfilled, Oedipus punished himself by gouging out his eyes, resigned his office as King of Thebes and retired forever, setting out to walk on infinite paths, thus fulfilling what WILHELM STEKEL calls the compulsion of the name, and which may well have been some other oracle, which would keep him walking during the last stage of his life.
Oedipus’ life is tragic enough. No doubt about it. A punishment from the gods?
The myth places Oedipus blind and walking at the end of his days. It would seem that the myth communicates to us that walking was part of his deliverance; but why does he remove himself, his eyes?
Would walking in the dark have any meaning, would wandering without seeing and without meaning be the answer to it?
Cytheron was the Mount consecrated to Dionysus. The Greek god Dionysus represented pleasure, optimism and the joy of living; he endowed humans with strength and happiness.
Most probably Oedipus decided to walk for the rest of his life through the infinite paths of Mount Cytheron, to seek during those walks the strength and joy he had lost, trying to find the comfort and shelter of Dionysus, and get away from sadness and unhappiness.
If with this post I manage to attract a minimum of attention to the care of our feet, I will have achieved my goal: Oedipus, Dionysus, feet, walking?
Let us keep in mind the image of Dionysus. Let us walk every day looking for him, and once we have located him, let us not let go of his hand.
Let us walk taking care of our feet.