Referring to himself as “murderer,” Oidipous reverts to his first interpretation of the prophecy he heard at Delphi (l. 793). Having just heard the same prophecy couched in the altogether different language of sacrifice, the audience cannot fail to remark (again) the discrepancy and appreciate the enormity of its implications. The truth seems to be this: Oidipous had need of his father to complete a sacred obligation, but if he did not find him through his own efforts, he was doomed to find him anyway, no longer as a willing servant, a priest even, of the god, but murderer. Necessity dictated that if he was to resist participation in his father’s divinely ordained killing, then he was to be his father’s murderer. The choice is not life or death for his father, but holy agent or killer for himself. It lies within his power to make this choice. [Mp] [Mi] [P] [Apamu]