Rather than chafing, as does Oidipous, at the need to bow to a higher authority, Kreon calls the god’s decision a gift (δόσιν). It is of course strange that he should consider any punishment a “gift,” so he must mean that he regards any decision that the god might make to be a gift, because he trusts the god to do well by the mortals whom his decisions affect, an assumption in which he departs sharply from Oidipous, who immediately upon hearing the god’s pronouncement at Delphi inferred that the god was malevolent towards him. [Ad] [Ap] [Aj] [Mpea] The audience, having had the opportunity to realize that the god was himself acting under a constraint and may in any case not have meant all of his words precisely as Oidipous understood them, can now appreciate that Kreon’s attitude is entirely appropriate. Even when the god requires suffering, the sacrifice is necessary to accomplish a greater benefit and willing acceptance will in any case be less onerous than refusal. It can therefore be valued as a gift. [Mw]