Chained Down

In Oedipus Rex, the binding of the feet of a doomed child is meant to prevent both fate and identity from coloring his future. Prophesized to be the downfall of his parents, the son of Laius and Jocasta was meant to die when his feet were fastened to the bottom of a mountainside in a foreign land. In disbelief that Oedipus could be the son that they cast away, Jocasta reveals that "his son was not three days born when Laius fastened his feet and had him cast by the hands of others onto a remote mountainside" (Sophocles 148). She strongly believes that planning to cause the death of the child removes any possibility that he survived and was therefore the true murderer of Laius that is now bringing strife across the land. Not only that, but she also declares that "hence Apollo did not cause the child to become his father's murderer, nor did Laius succumb to the calamity he feared, falling victim to his son" (148). Jocasta believes that their actions prevented the oracle-predicted fate of the child. The binding of the feet become metaphorical representations of the tainted future predicted for the young prince. Now that his feet are bound, so have his fate and future become fettered to prevent that he one day kill his father.
This attempt does not hold for long. The Corinthian messenger that received Oedipus from the shepherd reveals that his "ankles had been pierced, and I untied you" (179). By untying Oedipus' holds, not only does he liberate the fate that Oedipus will one day carry out unknowingly, but it also allows Oedipus to assume his true identity. Although the shepherd gives the child for the messenger to raise, Oedipus is instead raised as a royal prince who becomes a strong hero and rules the lands of his fathers. The representation of feet as identity also resonates in the words of Chorus who says that "Tyranny begets hubris, and if sated to excess with what is not right or good, hubris will climb to the topmost pinnacle, only to confront a sheer abyss where feet are of no avail" (161). It does not matter whether Oedipus is a rightful prince, the laws of nature demand that his 'feet', or identity and fateful position as king, be removed from him for his unforgivable actions in killing his father and consorting with his mother.