Oidipous seems to ascribe his deplorable state of affairs to the incestuous bed in which he was born. The incest, of course, only came after his return to Thebes, following the prophecy which he received at Delphi, for the prophecies given Laios are not reported by Iokaste to have made any mention of incest. The necessity of incest, then, does not seem like the necessity or parricide to have arisen with Oidipous’s conception, but with his questioning the Pythia about his natural parents. As the word “bridegroom” will just have underscored for the audience because it was not heard at Delphi, “marry” is but one interpretation of the verb whose more fundamental meaning is “mix” or “join.” If Oidipous’s situation is deplorable for the incest in which he lives, this is due not to his being destined for it at birth, but to his misinterpreting what he heard from the Pythia. It was his mishandling of that interview that put him into the marriage bed with his mother, first as an idea, which he wrongly attributed to the god, and then as a deed, which he could then also blame on agency outside himself. His misascription of responsibility suggests that human misery is not predetermined either by necessity or by the gods; it is the result rather of mortals’ failure to disambiguate the Pythia’s responses to their questions. Judging by Oidipous’s example, the failure stems from the predilection to shift to others, especially perhaps to the gods, responsibility for negative outcomes. [Mipd] [Mw] [Md]