Characterizing himself as a “child of Chance” (παῖδα τῆς Τύχης) Oidipous implicitly declares his preference for the status that one earns through the expression of one’s own character and actions. His values and thinking are much like those of his mother, whose counsel not to pay heed to oracles and prophets but to live instead “at will” he has more than once complimented (ll. 859 and 986). Like her, Oidipous embraces a universe spawned by Τύχη, an abstract term that he personifies as if it were a “generous” (εὖ διδούσης) god who will not dishonor him. These qualities can be understood contrastively: an Olympian god may withhold bounty (witness Thebes’ plague on reproduction) and dishonor his or her devotees (witness Apollo’s dismissive treatment of Oidipous at Delphi). Oidipous’s expression of faith in chance underscores the importance to him of being treated with respect, or at least without disrespect (ἂτιμον, l. 789; ἀτιμασθήσομαι, l. 1081). His god is in fact no force at all, but the absence of force; no will, but the absence of will; no plan, but mere accident, which he is prepared to substitute for the pantheon of Olympians. He thereby adopts a new conception of how circumstances arise; he ascribes to chance (τύχη) those events previously assumed to be managed by the gods and which mortals conventionally interpret as “fate” (also τύχη). Just as Iokaste has just been made aware that this new philosophy is bankrupt, the audience knows that so shall he be made aware—and so must Athens. [Mpea] [Md] [Ap] [Mw]