Describing himself as “neither seeing nor making inquiry” (οὔθ᾽ ὁρῶν οὔθ᾽ ἱστορῶν), Oidipous seems to want to say that he neither saw nor knew his circumstances when he sired his daughters. The primary meaning of ἱστορέω, however, is to learn by inquiry, and in using this word, Oidipous seems to indict himself for failing to inquire. Yet he did inquire; he went to Delphi, where he thought he was told that he must marry his mother and give rise to an abominable generation (ll. 790-2). Thus, his self-indictment must be interpreted more broadly than he means it: his inquiry was begun but not properly completed, for he left the holy precinct without a proper understanding of what was wanted of him. Thus, he did not “see” his father or his mother or what he was doing with either of them. He would have done better to inquire more properly, what the god and necessity required of him, and more fully, what precisely his role was to be. [Mpei] [Mipd]