Calling Oidipous the “best of masters,” the Theban seems to be facetious; the fact that Oidipous is now threatening violence gives the herdsman obvious grounds not to regard him as the best of masters. In addition, he does not believe that he deserves reproof, for he believes that by staving off Oidipous’s recognition of what he has done, he is acting in Oidipous’s best interest. He does not want his ruler to suffer—perhaps because he feels partly responsible for Oidipous’s misdeeds, although he also knows that the god required Laios’ death at Oidipous’s hands. He seems to be conflicted; he judges Oidipous with ambivalence as he always has. The audience will similarly find ambivalence in its own efforts to judge Oidipous. His persistence in seeking out his own unrecognized identity, fraught as it appears to be with criminal acts and taboo transgressions is laudable, but the discoveries to which that persistence leads show him to be impious, and in his impiety an obstruction to the god’s efforts to aid the city. If, as the audience has come to suppose, the god is using him against himself, the god appears to have chosen to employ this mortal’s best qualities to unmask his worst. [Mpei] [Md] [Apamu]