Oidipous regards the accusations against him with the consequence of death or banishment as meriting the most severe punishment: Kreon must die. It is interesting that, where Apollo’s prophecy allows for adjudication of the punishment for Laios’ murder, Oidipous insists upon the most severe punishment for, at worst, an attempt on his own life. The apparently excessive severity of Oidipous’s conception of justice is made more repugnant by the audience’s knowledge that it is in error, for Kreon has not attempted to murder, exile, or otherwise remove his brother-in-law from power. While a head of government’s fervent commitment to uphold both justice and the god’s demands are laudable, when personal involvement and a predilection to jump to unwarranted conclusions render him blind to actual guilt and innocence, the consequent miscarriage of justice must raise questions about the integrity of the institution of justice itself. This draws the audience’s attention to the fact that civic institutions are only as good as the people who run them, so that when these operate on false assumptions, which appears not unlikely, the institutions fail to achieve their purpose. If such institutions are to be of any use, some corrective, such as perhaps only a god can provide, is needed to protect against the damage done when their administration is subject to common human errors. [Mpea] [Mg] [Mw] [Mpea] [Ap]