As Oidipous tries to persuade his wife that her social standing will not be affected by his parentage, the audience will consider his argument from its own perspective and find that if Iokaste is to be judged “bad” (κακή) for her marriage with him, it will not be due to his birth to a low-status family but for his birth to her. Having realized that she is his mother, she can be expected to see the error in Oidipous’s thinking. Nor is it a matter of simple ignorance; he (like her) had received a prophecy that accurately foretold what subsequently occurred. His error, then, (like hers) was to believe that he could thwart the realization of a prophecy just because he was unwilling to accept it. [Mpei] [Mpea] [Apa] [Mi] [Md]