Repeating “this very thing” to emphasize the source of his worry will only emphasize the audience’s awareness of the double entendre in the Corinthian’s last statement. The truth is that where Oidipous inherited his problem, the riddle that shapes his life, from his parents, he is mistakenly worried about polluting them. Had he been concerned to find out the source of pollution, something that he could never have learned from anyone other than a prophet or oracle operating as a medium between Apollo and him, he would have received instruction as to the steps he must take to cleanse himself of their contamination. From his own accounts of his interview with the Pythia, the audience has begun to understand that the god was endeavoring to provide him with the instruction he needed, but he failed to attend sufficiently carefullty to what the Pythia had to say. Had he followed the instruction to draw his father’s blood in a ritual killing ordered by Apollo, that action, rather than polluting him, would have cleansed him. [Md] [Mpei] [Mipd] [Ad] [Mw]