Where Oidipous means to say that of all mortals he has become the one most hated by the gods, he in fact says, “I have come [ἥκω] as one most hostile to the gods.” This might prompt the audience to recall and to reconsider his declaration at the play’s opening to “have come” in answer to the supplication on the assumption that Apollo would not respond in person or even send an emissary (l. 7). He dismissed the god without honor just as he felt dismissed without honor by the response he received from Apollo at Delphi. He is reiterating what he has felt since his interview at Delphi; namely, that the god dismissed him without honor. Reviewing that moment from its present vantage, the audience will find that he does not seem to have arrived at Delphi either despising or despised by Apollo. He left, however, thoroughly at odds with the god, for believing that Apollo owed him respect, he disrespected Apollo, and because his disrespect led him to break off the interview without discovering what Apollo required of him, he gave Apollo no choice but to intervene directly, which meant for Oidipous the utmost degradation not only of killing father and fathering children with mother, but of being forcd to do this against his will. It is ironic, then, that when he arrives at Thebes, his defeat of the Sphinx encourages him in the belief that he is capable of defeating a supernatural being in a direct test. Thus, when he eventually sends Kreon to inquire of the god how to deal with the plague, he is well established in a lifetime of dedication to defeating the very god whose help he still occasionally feels he must have. This is an awful contradiction, and to suppose that the god would not notice or would not mind only adds insult to injury. Seen from the god’s vantage, Oidipous more than any man despises his power. Even now Oidipous is prepared to leave Thebes without asking the god’s leave. The gods’ apparent hatred is not, then, vicious and arbitrary–it is not something at which Oidipous simply “arrived”; it is Apollo’s just and necessary response to a serious and significant challenge to the possibilities of a salubrious relationship between mortals and immortals. If this is always the case, if the relationship between Oidipous and Apollo can be generalized, it means that Athens’ perception that the god (or his Oracle at Delphi) “has come” to hate Athens is an error that necessitates corrective action, for otherwise the possibility of a salubrious relationship between Athens and the gods is at an end. [Gd] [Mpea] [Md] [Ad] [Dnp] [Dnc]