Similarly, the participle τελῶν might most appropriately express the insight that in arranging for Oidipous to kill his father and marry his mother the god was “bringing to [necessary] fulfillment” what he had prophesied or what his petitioner mistakenly understood him to have prophesied. The “ills” in that case are not the god’s responsibility. Oidipous might however mean only to say that the god brought to fruition the doom that he had all along been working for Oidipous. In this case, he mistakenly regards the god as hostile, and it is precisely this error that compels the god to work ill for Oidipous. This is the necessity of which Apollo spoke when Oidipous consulted him—the necessity wrought by a mortal’s misinterpretation of divine words based on a misjudgment of the god’s relationship to him. [Ad] [Mpea] [P] [Aj] [Dnc] [Mipd]