According to classical myth, when Oedipus guessed the Sphinx's riddle he won the kingdom of Thebes and a wife in the person of Jocasta, who was later revealed to be his mother.

Ingres's first version of this subject (Paris, Louvre) is dated 1808. Ingres reworked it in about 1826-27 and this picture may have been made as a model in connection with the alterations.