Kreon’s statement, though perhaps constructed as a rhetorical ploy to avoid taking a position on the question, nevertheless presumes that Oidipous must know whether or not he killed Laios, while the audience knows that in fact he does not. Thus, the suppositions of both men prove false. The truth lies in an uncertain middle ground. That Oidipous and Kreon are both intelligent men simply shows that high intelligence offers no protection against the falsity even of apparently rock-solid assumptions. [Mpea]