Referring to the maiming as τύχη, the Corinthian may be characterizing it either as a “happenstance,” the product of chance, or as a god’s deliberate act: “fate.” While Oidipous continues to attribute all pertinent events either to human agency or to chance, the audience sees that a god may be behind them. Oidipous’s naming, for example, may appear to have been the inspiration of the Corinthian messenger or of Polybos and Merope, but the audience can trace it to Apollo, whose project the triple signification would later serve. It must be supposed that he positioned the Corinthian to save the infant from exposure, that he oversaw the infant’s growth to manhood, that he spoke through the drunken reveler to prompt Oidipous’s journey to Delphi at the same time that he placed the Sphinx before Thebes to prompt Laios’ journey to Delphi, and that he devised the riddle that only Oidipous, thanks to name and scars, could solve. The concatenation of events can only underscore the fact that “chance” had nothing to do with any of it. Apollo was not, however, the sole agent. It was not he who conceived the child, but Laios. It was not he who determined to put the newborn to death, but Laios (joined perhaps by Iokaste). It was not he who fled from Delphi, but Oidipous. It was not he who struck the wayfarer, but Laios. It was not he who struck back and killed the man in the vehicle, but Oidipous. The name continues to signify even now, for it points to the maiming as a symbolic rather than practical aspect of exposure: there is in fact no necessity to pierce or even bind the ankles of a three-day-old child, for it cannot use its feet to escape its fate. Strangely, however, this is precisely what Oidipous has been trying to do; he has been attempting to run from the prophecy at Delphi. His failure in this endeavor points tos the conclusion that one should never imagine that one might outrun prophecy. Nor should one imagine that the “fate” it foretells was dictated by the gods. In this sense Oidipous’s naming was both prophetic and wise; it applies to all mortals who, in this regard, have swollen ankles, or rather swollen minds, that hobble their success by absurdly suggesting flight. “Oidipous” is thus a good name for any mortal, about whom the truth is that no matter the stage in life and no matter the condition of legs and feet, when it comes to outrunning a god one is always crippled. [Mp] [Ap]