The audience might recall that it has heard the word συμφορᾶς once before, at the beginning of the play, when the priest estimated Oidipous to be the best of mortals “in life’s events” (ἔν τε συμφοραῖς βίου, l. 33). Here, with the terrible action having already reached its climax, the Chorus appraises Oidipous as “wretched in thought and equally wretched in the event.” The priest must have been thinking of Oidipous’s amazing success with the Sphinx; the priest must be thinking of the miserable consequences of his trying to evade prophecy. From the present perspective, even the past success is more to be attributed to Apollo’s powers to contrive events. [Mp] [Ap]