Granting that he was born of parents who were “evil” (κακῶν), he seems to equate their faults with himself, and yet it is quite unclear that he understands the nature of their misdeeds any better than he understands the nature of his own. Rather, he seems to feel that his own baseness (κακός τ´ ὢν) was passed down to him, and having lain festering beneath the surface for a number of years, eventually broke through to the surface. This view directly contradicts views he expressed earlier, when he argued that Iokaste would not suffer from the discovery that her husband was base-born, for her own nobility of birth was an immutable fact (ll. 1062-85). Following upon his discovery that he was born of noble Theban blood, he makes her “bad.” In both instances he fashions his reasoning to suit his own impulse. At one moment it suits him to argue that birth has no bearing on one’s success or failure in life; at another it suits him to argue that his failures were inevitable. This puts the audience in the position of having to judge for itself, and it will see that Oidipous’s birth had a great deal to do with the course of his life. Had he not been the son of Laios and Iokaste, he would not have been maimed and left to die, rescued, and taken to Corinth to be raised. Had he not been their son the god would not have required him to kill Laios. Had he not been their son the god would not have been necessitated to save him, raise him, and summon him to Delphi for instructions. Had he not been their son he would not have gained fame for defeating the Sphinx. But the way in which he handled the consultation at Delphi was dictated neither by the gods nor by his parents; that error can be attributed to him alone. It is that that should now be on his mind, and laying blame on his parents misses the point as much as the arrogance of believing success to depend solely upon one’s own character and capacities. Proper handling of a consultation at Delphi depends entirely upon the consulter, who must understand that success in this as in every endeavor depends not only upon one’s own character and capacities but upon accord with and support from the god. [Mw] [Mpid] [Md]