Our translation adds a double entendre not found in the Greek, for the word “stab” suggests the momentary violence at the crossroads. The Greek should, however, lead the audience to look for a momentary decision that set into motion the long chain of events leading up to the present investigation. What moment, then, stands at the beginning of everything that is happening? What decision or what action put hope out of reach? Would it have been the killing at the crossroads or something prior even to that? [Mei] Oidipous clearly places great confidence in the capacity of his own reason to obtain the answers to his questions, but his confidence is countered by the audience’s recognition that he is not disposed to give the slightest consideration to the possibility that he himself might have committed the killing, while he naively believes that an eyewitness statement presents no obstacle to clearing things up. [Md] [Mpea]