Employing the metaphor of a “great harbor” the Chorus for the first time seems to countenance Oidipous’s sexual transgression, albeit indirectly. Not much imagination is required to see Iokaste as a single port to the sailings-in and sailings-out of son and father, whether this pair mean Oidipous at birth and Oidipous as man or Oidipous the son and Laios the father, each serving in turn as bridegroom. The metaphor’s interpretation is problematized–or perhaps enriched–by the linguistic details (grammar, structure, and semantics) of which it is constructed. In this regard, the language employed by the Chorus is suggestive of prophetic discourse; it requires disambiguation. [Mipd] If the clause begins with the indefinite relative pronoun, as some editors have it, this refers back unmistakably to Oidipous and him alone, which makes it impossible that “son and father” refer to two men. Another detail that supports the idea that “son and father” means Oidipous at birth and adulthood is the placement of “son” before “father,” which reverses the chronological sequence in which Laios and Oidipous made port in Iokaste’s “great harbor.” The reading of “son” and “father” as both referring to Oidipous is not without problems, however, for Oidipous only becomes a bridegroom upon his return to the harbor from which he first set sail; the newborn cannot be called “bridegroom,” and yet θαλαμηπόλωι must refer to him. The Homeric use of the word is equally problematic, for there θαλαμηπόλωι means not “lady’s maid.” How can Oidipous be thought of as a woman or as a servant? The θάλαμος (first part of the compound) is “an inner room or chamber; women’s apartment, inner part of the house” (LSJ I.1), “bedroom . . . bride-chamber” (LSJ I.2a), “folds or pens” (LSJ II), and “[a ship’s] hold.” The last two meanings fit well to present circumstances: the plague’s devastating effects on animal husbandry and the ship-of-state metaphor previously heard in this play, while the first set of meanings relating to inner chambers, women’s quarters, and bridal bower all seem suitable to the incestual activity between Oidipous and his mother. The other part of the compound derives from the verb πολέω, which when intransitive means “go about, range over” (LSJ I) and when transitive, “plow” (LSJ II). Just as plowing and sexual intercourse both involve repeated back-and-forth motion, shipping and intercourse both involve alternating in-and-out movements. As ships and plows are the same whether moving in or out, back or forth, so the man entering is the same person as the foetus exiting. Taking θαλαμηπόλωι in its Homeric meaning makes sense in relation to the repetition of movement in and out of the house’s inner-most chamber as the maidservant sees to the needs of her mistress. Characterizing Oidipous as Iokaste’s maid must, however, subject the audience’s view of him to a shocking adjustment; it suggests that he is in his unseen private relations servile and feminine, subject to the wants and needs of a demanding queen. [Gd] [Mpei] [Apa] [Mg]