Oidipous reflects on the fact that he has not only assumed his predecessor’s position of political power but now sleeps in his predecessor’s bed together with his predecessor’s wife. His thoughts extend all the way to the relationship he would have to Laios’ children, had there been any. Indeed, he uses the word ὁμόσπρορον (“sown in common” and thus “kindred”) to describe the woman in whom he and Laios both have sown their seed. This will remind the audience that she has borne them common fruit (another way of taking ὁμόσπρορον): both have had children from her. Oidipous is himself both fruit and seed. While Oidipous thinks that there was no fruit from Laios’ marriage to Iokaste, the audience may consider that Oidipous’s own marriage to her has rendered the entire town barren. As he makes an all but explicit declaration of the fact that Iokaste and he are related (ὁμόσπρορον) the audience will be keenly focused on the ignorance with which Oidipous speaks and the fruit that his ignorance has borne. If the audience is presumed to know from other sources (such as Aeschylus’ Oidipous play) that Oidipous had been told by the Oracle that he must kill his father and marry his mother prior to his encounter with Laios, his ignorance is even more striking and complex; it would reflect an improper attitude towards prophecy and the god in whose name the Oracle at Delphi speaks. [Mpea] [Md] [Mi]