The priest enjoins Oidipous to equal his earlier success, but in a context in which he has just proclaimed Oidipous to be superior to a super-human being such as the Sphinx and the equal of divine agents such as prophets, the notion that he should now equal his own past, rather than casting a ray of hope on the present, suggests that the past success may not be equal to what it has been thought to have been. Indeed, while recognizing the subject of the Sphinx’s riddle to be “man,” Oidipous failed to consider that man is not defined by his gait but rather by the distinctions between “mortal” and “immortal,” a decidedly unequal relationship. [Ap] [Mpei] [Mpea]