Oidipous will not die of the plague. In this he is unlike Pericles. [Gt-a] For him an “even worse” fate has been reserved: namely, to live with the knowledge of what he has done. And while the city is punished for its failure to deal with pollution by consulting the god in a timely manner, Oidipous will be punished despite—and perhaps even due to—his every effort to accommodate the god’s mandate. How can this be just? If Oidipous’s fate is deserved, then justification must be sought not in his present behavior, but rather in deeds omitted some time ago. One thinks first of his horrendous misdeeds—the killing of his father and marriage to his mother, but these are crimes of commission, not omission. In the context of its present considerations the audience may further note that his error was not a failure to consult in a timely manner, for he did in fact in his youth consult Delphi immediately before he committed his great crimes. He would seem to have acted in good time. His present curse, however, singles out anyone who fails to aid in realizing the god’s mandate, and if this standard is applied to his youthful behavior vis-à-vis the god’s instruction, it must be said that rather than embracing compliance, he fled from it. Again Oidipous’s speech carries meanings that extend far beyond his capacity for comprehension, for he is unaware of the fate that is about to be revealed to him, or rather to whose revelation he is presently doing his utmost to contribute. Thus, just as he curses Thebes to suffer what it already suffers as a consequence of long-ago errors, he himself is already caught up in the punishment for which he uncomprehendingly calls. In both calling for his punishment and carry it out upon himself, he both acts and speaks for the god; he is the god’s unwitting agent. [Apamu] [Apcmu] [Aj]