LONDON -- Not content with killing his father and marrying his mother, Oedipus has now been fingered as the angry young man who invented "road rage."
"Although the word is new, road rage the phenomenon is very, very old," Robert Allen, editor of "Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage," said.Allen said his research for Fowler's, a renowned reference guide, had shown "rage" originated in the 14th century but had developed a special modern use relating to acts of random, violent behavior practised by frustrated individuals.
From cycle rage to golf rage and trolley rage, the phenomenon has taken off in recent years, especially with road rage, which has led to injury and even death.
"But it actually dates back to the second millennium B.C.," said Allen, whose updated version of Fowler's 1926 reference guide was published by Oxford University Press Thursday.
"The first recorded example of road rage dates from the Oedipus story in Greek mythology," he said. "Oedipus killed his father at a crossroads when they got in each other's way."
Oedipus, the king of Thebes, married his mother after killing his father in a legend that spawned Freud's "Oedipus complex," whereby sons are believed to harbor antagonism toward their fathers as rivals for the mother's affection.