Kreon offers two more proverbs: a good friend is as dear as one’s life, and while a man’s good character can only be established over an entire lifetime, one moment is enough to lay bare a flaw (κακός again!). Kreon obviously wants to make the point that he is a true friend whom Oidipous should not discard, as will become clear to Oidipous in the fullness of time. For the audience awaiting the public exposure of Oidipous’s crimes, however, Kreon’s remark about recognizing what makes a man κακός in only a day serves as a reminder that Oidipous will on this very day be shown to have killed his father and married his mother. These are the deeds, foretold by the god’s prophet at Delphi, for which he inadvertently swore he would be κακός if he did perform. This presents the audience with the paradox it has met before: it believes incest and parricide to be κακός, and Kreon’s comment suggests that on this day Oidipous will be shown to be κακός, and yet the audience does not yet judge Oidipous to be bad. Either Kreon’s homily falls apart on the example of Oidipous, which seems unlikely, or the audience has yet to discover, presumably before the play ends, in what way Oidipous is to be seen to be κακός. This paradox is like a riddle, and the fact that the audience is confounded by it puts it into the same frame of mind as Thebes under assault by the sphinx. [Gm] [Mp] [Mi] [Apcma] [Gt-a]