JOCASTA

jocasta, or iocasta ([greek: iokaste]; in homer, [greek: epikaste]), in greek legend, wife of laius, mother (afterwards wife) of oedipus (q.v.), daughter of menoeceus, sister (or daughter) of creon. according to homer (_od._ xi. 271) and sophocles (_oed. tyr._ 1241), on learning that oedipus was her son she immediately hanged herself; but in euripides (_phoenissae_, 1455) she stabs herself over the bodies of her sons eteocles and polynices, who had slain each other in single combat before the walls of thebes.