Laius
Λάιος
The Theban king who, told his son would kill him, abandoned his son.
In exile he abducted Chrysippus, the son of the house that had sheltered him — and the boy's father Pelops laid the curse: "Your own seed will kill you."
He pierced his newborn son's feet and left him on a mountain, but a shepherd saved the child.
Years later, at a narrow crossroads, he quarreled with a young man over the right of way and was struck dead. That young man was Oedipus.
SourcesApollodorus, Library
Commonly confused
This is not a story of "fate, so nothing could be done." It was the choice to abandon the child — made to dodge the oracle — that guaranteed he would not recognize his own son.