407 
(E D I 
afcending branches, covered below.with fears from fallen 
leaves, above with green leaves at the ends of the branches. 
Leaves oppofite, feflile, narrow, acute, channelled. 
2. CEdera aliena : leaves linear, tomentofe underneath. 
This plant has the appearance of Stashelina or Gnapha- 
lium, with the flowers of Calendula ; and its genus is yet 
doubtful. It is an underlhrub, not much branched, 
white-tomentofe. Leaves alternate, like thofe of rofe- 
mary, acute, with one or two fliarp teeth at the edge. 
Flowers terminating, folitary, feflile, the fize of Calen¬ 
dula, yellow; anther pale; ftyle faft'ron-coloured, Hand¬ 
ing out. Seeds woolly, white, crowned with very many 
yellow bridles. 
3. CEdera hirta: leaves ovate, entire, hairy. See Dra- 
cAna and Lobelia. 
CEDERAU', or CE'dern, a town of Saxony, in the cir¬ 
cle of Erzgebirg : nine miles eaft-north-eaft of Chem¬ 
nitz, and twenty-fix weft-fouth-welt of Drefden. Lat. 
50.48. N. Ion. 13. 7. E. 
GiD'JONG PAN'CA, a town on the north coaft of the 
ifland of Java. 
CED'IPUS, a fon of Laius king of Thebes and Jocafta. 
As being defeended from Venus by his father’s fide, CEdi- 
pus was born to be expofed to all the dangers and the ca¬ 
lamities which Juno could inflift upon the pofterity of the 
goddefs of beauty. Laius, thejather of CEdipus, was in¬ 
formed by the oracle, as foon as he married Jocafta, that 
he muft perilh by the hands of his fon. Such dreadful 
intelligence awakened his fears ; and, to prevent the ful¬ 
filling of the oracle, he refolved never to approach Jo¬ 
cafta; but his folemn refolutions were violated in a fit of 
intoxication. The queen became pregnant; and Laius, 
llill intent to flop the evil, ordered his wife to deftroy her 
child as foon as it came into the world. The mother had 
not the courage to obey; yet ihe gave the child, as foon 
as born, to one of her domeftics, with orders to expofe 
him on the mountains. The fervant bored the feet of 
the child, and fufpended him by the heels to a tree on 
Mount Cithasron, where he was found by one of the (hep- 
herds of Polybus king of Corinth. The fiiepherd car¬ 
ried him home ; and Peribcea, the wife of Polybus, who 
had no children, educated him with maternal tendernefs. 
The accomplifliments of the infant, who was named CEdi¬ 
pus, on account of the fwelling of his feet, (oihv, a fwell- 
ing, feet,) foon became the admiration of the age. 
His companions envied his ftrength and his add refs; and 
one of them, to mortify his riling ambition, told him he 
was an illegitimate child. This raifed his doubts ; he 
alked Peribcea; who, out of tendernefs, told him that his 
lufpicions were ill-founded. Not (atisfied with this, he 
went to confult the oracle of Delphi, and was there told 
not to return home ; for, if he did, he muft necefl’arily be 
the murderer of his father, and the hulband of his mother. 
This anfwer of the oracle terrified him ; he knew no home 
but the houfe of Polybus; therefore he refolved not to 
return to Corinth, where fuch calamities apparently at¬ 
tended him. He travelled towards Phocis; and, in his 
journey, met in a narrow road Laius, on a chariot, with 
his arm-bearer. Laius haughtily ordered CEdipus to make 
way for him. CEdipus refufed ; and a conteft enlued, in 
which Laius and his arm-bearer were both killed. As 
CEdipus was ignorant of the quality and of the rank of the 
men whom he had killed, he continued his journey, and 
was attracted to Thebes by the fame of the Sphynx. This 
terrible monfter, whom Juno had fent to lay w'alte the 
country, reforted in the neighbourhood of Thebes, and 
devoured all thofe who attempted to explain, without luc- 
cefs, the enigmas which he propofed. The calamity was 
now become an object of public concern ; and, as the fuc- 
cefsful explanation of an enigma would end in the death 
ol the fphynx, Creon, who, at the death of Laius, had 
afcended the throne of Thebes, promifed his crown and 
Jocafta to him who fucceeded in the attempt. The enigma 
propofed was this : “ What animal in the morning walks 
upon four feet, at noon upon two, and in the evening 
O E D 
upon three ?*’ This was left for CEdipus to explain. He 
came to the monfter, and faid, that “ Man, in the morn¬ 
ing of life, walks upon his hands and his feet ; when he 
has attained the years of manhood, he walks upon his two 
legs; and, in the evening, he fupports his old age with the 
afiiftance of a ftaff.” The monfter, mortified at the true 
explanation, dallied his hpad againft a rock, and perilhed. 
CEdipus afcended the throne of Thebes, and married 
Jocafta, by whom he had two Ions, Polynices and Eteocles, 
and two daughters, Ifmena and Antigone. Some years 
after, the Theban territories were vilited with a plague ; 
and the oracle declared that it fliould ceafe only when the 
murderer of king Laius was banilhed from Boeotia. As 
the death of Laius had never been examined, and thecir- 
cumftances that attended it never known, this anfwer of 
the oracle was of the greateft concern to the Thebans; 
but CEdipus, the friend of his people, refolved to over¬ 
come every difficulty by the molt exaft enquiries. His 
refearches w?re fuccefsful; and he was foon proved to be 
the murderer of his father. The melancholy difeovery 
was rendered the more alarming, when CEdipus confidered, 
that he had not only murdered his father, but that he had 
committed inceft with his mother. In the excefs of his 
grief he put out his eyes, as unworthy to fee the light, and 
banilhed himfelf from Thebes, or, as fome fay, was ba¬ 
nilhed by his own fons. He retired towards Attica, led 
by his daughter Antigone, and came near Colonos, where 
there was a grove facred to the Furies. He remembered 
that he was doomed by the oracle to die in liich a place, 
and to become the fource of profperity to the country in 
which his bones were buried. A meflenger upon this 
was fent to Thefeus, king of the country, to inform him 
of the refolution of CEdipus. When Thefeus arrived, 
CEdipus acquainted him, with a prophetic voice, that the 
gods had called him to die in the place where he flood; 
and to Ihow the truth of this, he walked himfelf, without 
the afiiftance of a guide, to the fpot where he muft expire. 
Immediately the earth opened, and CEdipus difappeared. 
Jocafta put an end to her days by ftrangling herfelf. 
Their fons were diltinguilhed by the inveteracy of their 
mutual hatred, and its tragical efteCts. The death of 
CEdipus is placed by chronologifts about 1228 B.C. 
OEDMAN'NIA, f. [fo called byThunbergin honour 
of his countryman, the Rev. Samuel Oedmanu, author of 
various treatifes relating to natural hiltory, publifhed 
in Swedifii, in the Stockholm TranfaCtions.] In bo¬ 
tany, a genus of the clafs diadelohia, order decandria, 
natural order papilionaceae, Linn, (leguminofae, Jufj.') 
Generic characters—Calyx : perianthium inferior, of one 
leaf, bell-fhaped, tapering at the bale, fmooth and even, 
two-lipped ; upper lip large!!, deeply cloven ; lower Am¬ 
ple, awl-fliaped, taper-pointed. Corolla: papilionaceous, 
twice the length of the calyx ; ftandard large, (talked, el¬ 
liptical ; heart-lhaped at the bafe 5 notched, with a fmall 
point at the tip ; concave, fmooth. Wings (talked, half¬ 
heart-lhaped, oblong, obtufe, undivided, half the breadth 
of the ftandard, but of the fame length ; keel of two- 
ftalked, half-lieart-lhaped, acute, boat-like, petals, the 
length of the wings. Stamina: filaments ten, all united 
into a comprefied tube, feparate and curved at the top, the 
length of the corolla; antherm oblong. Piltillum : germen 
fuperior, linear-lanceolate; Ityle thread-lhaped, curved, 
rather longer than the (tamens ; ftigma Ample. Pericar- 
pium : legume elliptical, fmooth.— Effential Churatler. 
Calyx two-lipped, upper lip cloven, lower briltle-lhaped; 
corolla papilionaceous ; petals (talked ; legume elliptical. 
Oedmannia lancea, a lingle fpecies. (Stockh. Tranf. 
for 1800.) Native of the Cape of Good Hope. The Item 
is about a foot high; rather herbaceous than Ihrubby; af¬ 
cending, Ample, round, brown, leafy, quite fmooth. 
Leaves alternate, feflile, lanceolate, entire, fmooth, an 
inch and a half long, numerous, rather crowded, and 
nearly ereCt; thefir bafe tapering; their point acute. 
Flowers at the &»p of the Hera, axillary, folitary, (talked, 
fcarcely projecting beyond the leaves; their fize is about 
4 that 
V 
