Chapter 31 Ace of Diamonds...he is an open-minded gentleman who demands all the cards on the table...

As usual, I got up before Dad, but it didn't take long for his muscles to start twitching. I decided to take a closer look to see if Dad woke up with a bang every morning, as he said yesterday. I found out that he was telling the truth.When he opened his eyes, there was a frightened expression on his face, as if he had suddenly woken up in a completely strange place--India or another planet. "You're alive," I told Dad. "At this moment you are in New Delhi, India. New Delhi is a city on the earth, and the earth is a planet in the Milky Way galaxy orbiting the sun. It takes three hundred and sixty-five days to complete one revolution."

Dad stared straight at me with his eyes open.That expression seemed to be trying to adjust his eyes, transitioning from dream to reality. "Thank you for the information," he finally said. "Usually, before I get out of bed every morning, I have to grope around on my own, trying to figure out where I am at this moment." Dad climbed out of bed and walked across the room to the bathroom. "Son, every morning from now on, you can speak a few words of wisdom in my ear, just like what you just said. This way, I will get up earlier and go to the bathroom to freshen up earlier."

It didn't take long for us to pack our bags, have breakfast at a restaurant, and hit the road. "It's incredible how gullible these people are!" Dad said suddenly as the car drove past the ancient Temple of Apollo. "You mean they're too superstitious about the oracle?" I asked. Dad didn't answer right away.I'm afraid he's starting to have doubts about the Apollo oracle's prophecy that we'll find Mommy in Athens.He was silent for a while before he said: "You are right, but I am referring to another thing. Think about the gods of ancient Greece: Apollo, the sun god, Asclepias, the god of medicine. , the goddess of wisdom Athena, the god of heaven Zeus, the god of the sea Poseidon (Poseidon) and the god of wine Dionysus (Dionysus). For thousands of years, generations of Greeks spent huge sums of money to build marble temples for these gods, It took untold hardships to haul chunks of unwieldy marble from far away places."

I don't know much about the gods my father talked about, but I still couldn't help but object; "How can you insist that these gods don't exist? Maybe they're away from here now—maybe they're somewhere else Find gullibles—but that doesn't mean he's never lived here before." Dad looked up in the rearview mirror, at me in the backseat. "Hans Thomas, do you really believe what you just said?" "I'm not sure. But I think the gods exist as long as people believe in them. The gods don't grow old or become worn out like old clothes unless people start to doubt it. It’s obvious to all.”

"Well said!" Dad cheered. "Hans Thomas, you speak so well, maybe one day you will become a philosopher." At least this time, I said something thoughtful that even Dad had to think about.He drove the car quietly and didn't say anything for a while. In fact, Dad was played by me.If I hadn't read the Bun book, I wouldn't be able to say such abstruse words.It wasn't the Greek gods I had in mind, but Freud's play of cards. For a long time, no one spoke in the car.I secretly took out the magnifying glass and the bun book, and was about to start reading when my father stepped on the brakes and pulled the car to a side stop.He jumped out of our Fiat, lit a cigarette, and stood by the side of the road looking at a road map of Greece in his hand.

"Found it! Yes, it must be here." He exclaimed excitedly. I was dumbfounded.The whole area, save for a narrow valley to our left, contained no particular vistas.I really don't understand why Dad suddenly became agitated. "Sit down!" Dad said. I know, Dad is going to make a long speech again.But this time I am not bored, but willing to listen. "Oedipus killed his father right here." Dad held out his arm, pointing to the valley. "Oh? He's too much." I said. "But, Dad, what are you talking about?" "Fate, Hans Thomas, I'm talking about fate - or 'family curse' in another way. It's a question that both father and son should be very happy about, because we've come all the way to this country in search of the missing Wife and mother."

"Do you believe in fate?" I couldn't help asking.Dad stood beside me, with one foot on the rock I was sitting on, a cigarette in his hand. Dad shook his head. "But the Greeks believed it. They believed that if you resisted fate, you would have to pay a terrible price in the end." I started to feel guilty and uneasy. "In a little while, we'll pass an ancient city called Thebes," Dad said. "Once upon a time, there lived a king named Laius and his wife Jocasta. The oracle of Delphi warned Laius not to have children, Otherwise, the son would kill his father and marry his mother when he grew up. Jocasta gave birth to a son. King Laius decided to abandon the son in the mountains, let him starve to death, or let wild animals eat him. "

"It's cruel!" I exclaimed. "It's cruel, but don't worry, King Laius asked the shepherds to take him into the mountains and abandon him; just in case, he cut his son's tendons so that he wouldn't flee back to the city. The shepherds obeyed the king On the way, he met a shepherd from Corinth. It turned out that the king of Corinth also owned several pastures in this mountain. The shepherd of Corinth sympathized with what happened to the little boy, so he asked Shepherd Bis asked him to take the child back to the king of Corinth. In this way, the little boy was sent to Corinth who had no children.

Adopted by the king and queen, he became the prince of the city-state.They called the boy 'Oedipus' - which means 'swollen feet' in Greek - because of the boy's hamstrings. After being picked off by her biological father, her entire foot became swollen.Oedipus grew up to be very handsome.Everyone liked him, but he was never told that the King and Queen of Corinth were not his real parents.But one day, at a banquet held in the palace, a guest suddenly mentioned that Oedipus is not His Majesty's biological heir at all—" "He wasn't a dead body," I interjected.

"That's right. But when Oedipus went to ask the queen, she faltered and refused to answer him directly. Oedipus had to go to Delphi to ask the gods. He asked Apollo's priestess Pixi Ya, is he the rightful heir to the throne of Corinth? Pythia said: 'Leave your father, or you will kill him the next time you meet, and marry your mother, and have several children with her. child." I couldn't help but let out a whistle.Isn’t this the prophecy that Laius, king of Thebes, heard at the beginning? Dad continued: “After hearing this prophecy, Oedipus dared not go back to Corinth, because until now he still thinks that the king and queen of Corinth are his. His biological parents. He began to wander from place to place, and finally came near Thebes. At the very spot where we are standing now, he encountered a luxurious carriage drawn by four horses, and in it sat a dignified gentleman. Several侍卫簇拥着这位贵人。其中一个侍卫揍了伊底帕斯一拳，喝令他让路。你别忘了，伊底帕斯从小在科林斯王宫中长大，备受宠爱，是个尊贵的王子啊。 How could he bear it? So, the two sides fought on the road, and Oedipus killed the noble man in the car."

"Is this noble man the biological father of Oedipus?" I asked. "That's right. All the guards were killed, and only the coachman fled back to the city to report. He said that His Majesty the King was murdered by a robber on the road. The queen and the people were very sad, but at this time, Theby But another big thing happened." "Oh? What's the matter?" "A sphinx monster named Sphinx stood guard on the road leading to Thebes and asked everyone passing by a riddle. Those who couldn't answer it would be punished. The monster was torn in two. The government of Thebes issued a notice: Whoever can solve the mystery of the Sphinx, the queen will marry him and let him inherit the throne left by King Reus." I couldn't help but whistle again. "When Oedipus saw the announcement, he immediately forgot about the tragedy that happened on the road, and rushed to the hill where the sphinx monster was entrenched. The monster asked him a riddle: what is used in the morning? Walk on four legs, use two at noon, and three at night." Dad paused, looked at me, and asked me to solve the riddle.I shake my head. "Oedipus replied to the monster: 'The answer is human beings, because life has three stages. A cane.' Oedipus got the answer right! When the monster heard this, he rolled down the hillside and fell to his death. Oedipus entered the city of Thebes and received a heroic welcome. Queen Jocasta ——his biological mother—she kept her promise to marry him. Later, they gave birth to two sons and two daughters.” "My mother!" I exclaimed.I had been watching Dad intently as he told this story, but I couldn't help looking away at the valley below our feet.It was there that Oedipus killed his own father. "The story doesn't end there," Dad continued, "and then there was a plague in Thebes. The Greeks at that time believed that such disasters showed that Apollo felt very deeply about something that happened in the world. Angry. So, Thebes sent envoys to Delphi to ask the oracle. The priestess Pisia replied: Apollo sent the plague because the king of Thebes, Laius, had been murdered for many years, and the murderer was still at large; If the people in the city of Bis want to save their lives, they must find the murderer and bring him to justice." "Don't find the murderer!" I screamed. "King Oedipus received the oracle, without saying a word, immediately assumed the responsibility of investigating the murderer who killed the former king. He never thought that the fight on the road was closely related to this murder. In this way, the murderer He became the person who wanted to hunt down the murderer. He first approached Song with an eye-catching eye in the city, and asked him who killed King Laius, but this person who could see into the crimes in the world refused to answer, because the answer was too cruel King Oedipus, who was industrious and caring for the people, refused to give up and asked repeatedly. He had to quietly tell His Majesty the king that he was the one who killed the former king. Oedipus finally remembered what happened on the road. He knew that he killed King Laeus, however, until now there is no evidence that he is the real son of Laeus. Oedipus is a straightforward gentleman; The shepherds of Bis and Corinth were called to confront them. They confirmed that Oedipus had killed his father and married his mother. The truth was finally revealed. In grief, Oedipus dug out two of his own hands. Only one eye. His whole life can be said to be 'sighted and blind'." I let out a faint sigh.I think this old story is so tragic and so unfair. "Dad, this is what I call a 'family curse'." I murmured. "Several times, King Reus and Oedipus tried to escape their fate," said Pa. s According to the Greeks, this was impossible. " When the car passed the ancient city of Thebes, both of us, father and son, were silent.I guess Dad was thinking about his own "family curse".For a long time, he didn't say anything. I sat in the back of the car and thought about the tragedy of Oedipus the Rex.After thinking about it for a long time, I couldn't help but took out the magnifying glass and the bun book and continued reading.