Calling Oidipous στυγνός, Kreon must mean that being compelled to yield has filled Oidipous with hate, but the audience may take the word as a confirmation of its own observation that Oidipous seems to be hated by a god or gods. Juxtaposition of the two readings suggests that Oidipous is made hateful to Apollo by his characteristic stubborn resistance to whatever he finds intolerable, a quality that surely ennobles him in the eyes of the audience, especially in relation to the intolerable prophecy that he must kill his father and marry his mother. The audience can see it both ways: Apollo’s ire is as justifiable as Oidipous’s refusal to yield is noble. In regard to Kreon, however, Oidipous’s anger is clearly in the wrong. Might it be wrong, then, in regard to the hateful prophecy? If Oidipous has ever hated Apollo (a feeling that Athens might well share in reaction to Apollo’s hateful commitment to a Spartan victory), this emotion must be impious and deserving of the god’s enmity. [Md] [Aj]