Unlike Iokaste, Oidipous seems struck by the similarity, to which he responds by calling himself a “wretch” and allowing that he has “unknowingly” cast himself headlong into the way of terrible curses, by which he can only mean the prophecies that he must kill his father and marry his mother. He seems at long last to have connected event with prophecy. Yet his characterization is still wrong; he was not unknowning, since prophecy accurately foretold what was coming, which he showed that he had understood when he decided forever to turn his back on Corinth. His characterization of matters as curses places unjust blame on the gods. [P] [Mc] What he might more accurately say is that by knowingly and assiduously trying to avoid those prophecies’ realization he cursed himself; his own action turned predictions into curses. This suggests that the prophecies he took to be curses did not initially have that character; had he regarded them differently they might have taken on a different coloration. His sufferings are largely the product of his own problematic attitudes and predilections. [Mpei] [Mw]