Calling attention to the way in which his children “sprouted,” Oidipous calls to mind the agricultural plague that resulted from his actions. This juxtaposition of children and plague suggests that the younger generation in whose interest the older might have thought to act is both itself polluted and the carrier of pollution. This should give the audience reason to consider that, rather than securing the future for the next generation of Athenians as it might hope, or at least as it must be claiming, it is in fact polluting it, such that it will not be able to look upon it without shame and regret. [Mg] [P] [Mw]