The audience will not immediately appreciate the accuracy of the staffperson’s declaration that Iokaste was the cause of her own death. She died by her own hand, yes, but only following Apollo’s execution of an intricate multi-faceted plan. Nevertheless, Apollo did not do this to her. She is not a miserable victim. She was an agent of the misery that has now engulfed her, her first husband, her second husband, her children (who include her second husband), and her city. If the audience takes her as an example, appearance of victimization should signal a possible failure to recognize that the misery that befalls one is of one’s own making, for the gods are agents of justice for which they are of necessity the guarantors. Suffering is deserved. When it occurs, one must look to human agency as its cause. [Mw] [Ad] [Aj] [Mpea] [Mp]