In a few minutes Oidipous has gone from breaking through the latched doors into Iokaste’s bed chamber (l. 1262) to needing help to get out—an extreme reversal that underscores the changes he has just wrought upon his own body. Force and violence have given way to helplessness and dependence. The extremity of the reversal suggests that the intensity of mortal commitment to any project may in a trice transform itself into its opposite. Force and violence may very soon result in self-injury and neediness. [Mw] [Aj]