As far as I know, he’s from Greek mythology. Ödipus was the son of some Greek king, if I remember correct. That king was prophecied that his son would kill him and marry his wife (the sons mother). He and his wife left the child in the wilderness to prevent that from happening.

But as prophecies go, Ödipus was found by a farmer or something and later adopted by another king, knowing nothing about his origin.

After learning that he potentially was adopted, Ödipus went to an Oracle himself and got the same prophecy (He will kill his father and marry his mother). He was mortified by that and left the kingdom of his adoptive parents to prevent that from happening.

Then he met his (real) father along the way, a guy traveling with his father got into a fight with him, and Ödipus killed them both. The new king of the first kingdom was the brother of Ödipus birthmother and set out a bounty on a sphinx ravaging his kingdom that increased over the time, until he added his sister (Ödipus birthmother) as a bonus on top.

Ödipus killed the sphinx, became the king of the first kingdom, and took his birthmother as his wife. A while after, a plague was destroying the kingdom and the Oracle prophecied that the murderer of the old king (Ödipus birth father) had to be found for it to end.

After a seer told him that it was him who killed the guy, he realized what had happened and his mother (and wife) killed herself. Ödipus blinded himself with needles and his end has multiple different versions.

However, Ödipus is also used when it comes to psychology. Freud had the idea of a “Ödipus complex”, which basically means that children want to kill their father and have a relationship with their mother. This – according to Freud – leads to a certain rivality between father and son. (Freud is really weird, I know).

So, in the end, I don’t exactly know what the person was referring to.

Edit: some typos