The word with which Kreon ends his speech is κακά, a word that has meant so many things in the course of this play and so prompts the audience to try to come to a more precise understanding of Oidipous’s degradation in terms of misfortune, misbehavior, or deep-set mental error. The audience will find that rather than having to choose among these alternatives, it can readily combine them; mental error leads to misbehavior, and this in turn leads to divine intervention and its manifestation in physical signs, such as scars. Such signs of injury reflect a failure of character, especially a lack of piety. [Mw] [P]