Oedipus enters the room and finds Jocasta. Troubled by the ghost’s statements and the memory of a man he killed long ago on the road to Thebes, he seeks details about Laius from Jocasta. The details she gives align with his recollections, yet before he can react, a messenger named Old Corinthian enters.

Old Corinthian has arrived with the message that King Polybus, the man Oedipus believes to be his father, has died and that Oedipus should return to take the throne in Corinth. Relieved that his father died of natural causes and that he did not kill his father as the prophecy foretold, Oedipus still hesitates to return out of fear that he will marry his mother.

Trying to reassure Oedipus, Old Corinthian tells him that the queen was not his biological mother. When pressed, Old Corinthian tells Oedipus that he brought Oedipus to the queen as a baby after a shepherd gave the baby to him on Mount Cithaeron. Oedipus, coming to a horrible realization, asks for more details about the mountain and the baby’s appearance. To confirm his fears, he asks the messenger if he could identify the shepherd who gave him the baby.