After Oidipous’s unintended play on his own name in ἔξοιδα/εἰσεἶδον at 105, the audience may hear an even subtler pun in οἱ δ’ εἰσὶ ποῦ γῆς; “These men are where on earth?” Here the syllables Οἰ-δι-πους have been rearranged to include the syllable εἰς, which in the proximity of οἰδ- echoes ἔξοιδα . . . εἰσεἶδον (“I thoroughly know … I had insight”) to produce a sing-songy silly-sounding mockery of his name. This poly-entendre solves the riddle of Laios’s murder: “It was ‘Mr. Insight’ who doesn’t know where on earth he is.” His unconsciously oracular speech will suggest to an Athenian audience that the god seems now to be toying with him—punishment perhaps for an unwarranted confidence in his own insight that leads him to pay insufficient attention to Delphi, the most reliable source of truth available to him. The god’s biting sarcasm reaches back to his coy use of the word χειρὶ (line 107), as if to say: “See how Oidipous will with his own hand execute justice on himself just as that hand was the instrument for executing justice on his father!” Apollo’s ire is warranted, for Oidipous’s belief that he understands circumstances well enough to manage them effectively on his own is disdainful of the god. [Ad] [Md] [Gd] [Apcmu] [Mip] Indeed, as Oidipous inquires of Kreon about the perpetrators’ present location, the audience, knowing that he is himself the perpetrator, will understand that he is in fact ignorant of his own origin; he does not know from where on earth he himself comes. Supposing that the audience already knows from its prior knowledge of the myth that Oidipous went to Delphi to inquire about his origins, which would include his birthplace, he would now be heard to be repeating (in double entendre) the essence of the question he posed to the god. As he is missing the point of the prophetic message just now delivered to him by Teiresias and those presently being delivered through him, the audience may wonder if he may have missed the point of the prophetic response he received when he was at Delphi itself. It may infer that it is pointless for Oidipous to confer with the god, not because the god cannot be expected to provide a reasonable answer, but because Oidipous cannot be expected to construe it properly. [Mpea] [Md] [Gd] [Apcmu] [Ad]