By ἔπος Oidipous clearly means his own proclamation, but the word can mean a longer tale, sung, or a prophecy, prompting the audience to recall the riddling Delphic song the young Oidipous spurned precisely because he feared both for kin and self. [Gd] ]Knowing that those fears have nevertheless been realized, the audience may consider that fearful response to a prophetic utterance can lead to grievous error. Thus, where the audience a moment ago judged that Oidipous was not prevented by fear from recognizing his own culpability, it now sees that it was indeed fear, but not fear of punishment, not fear of the consequences of using one’s own decisions and actions, but fear, rather, of realizing an intolerable prophecy, fear of doing something that one would never knowingly and willingly do. [Mpe] [Mw] [Md]