Haruki Murakami fashions one thread of Kafka on the Shore after the myth of Oedipus. In the Greek tragedy, Oedipus, son of Laius and Jocasta, was fated from birth to kill his father and marry his mother. Laius was fearful that the prophecy would come true, so sent his son to the wilderness to die. A servant took pity on young Oedipus, gave him to a shepherd who handed the child over to King Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth. They raised Oedipus as their own. Years later, Oedipus quarrels with a man on a mountain road and kills him. The man turns out to be Laius. When Oedipus correctly answers a riddle posed by a mystical creature terrorizing the city of Thebes, he saves the city and is granted the hand of the.....
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