Oidipous’s very name, Swell-Foot, advertises that the binding of his ankles left unusual injuries on one or both ankles. The name is an enduring verbal sign as the scars are an enduring physical sign, and yet Iokaste, who knows the name and certainly has seen her husband’s ankles, has never associated either with infanticide. That this doubling of signification appears never to have caught Iokaste’s attention is underscored by her promise to give signs (σημεῖα; l. 710). Instead of delivering a sign of prophecy’s failure, she is producing evidence of her own limitations, both in failing to read two mutually supporting signs and in wrongly assuming that Laios’ action could defeat prophecy. Contrary to her intention and understanding, her words signify Laios’ failed efforts to defeat prophecy and her own inability to read the signs of prophecy’s accuracy and power. The problem lies not in the signs, but in mortals’ incapacity to regard them in the proper light. [Mpei]