The question, “Was I spawned bad?” suggests that Oidipous has in his own mind been addressing the very conundrum just encountered by the audience. Where he may well mean, “Was I born to be miserable?” repetition of the otherwise common word κακός that he himself has singled out for its meaning “ignominious” links his perception of the conundrum in which he finds himself with the facts of which his ignomy consists but of which he is not yet aware: parricide and incest. [Gd] [Gm] This connection focuses the question on the cause of his ignominious deeds: what or who is responsible for their occurrence? Is it “fate” (i.e. the gods), something he did, or something done by his parents and of which he is innocent? Mention of his birth suggests that he may just now have cast his mind back over his life, scanning it in its entirety for a fault to which his present misery can justly be ascribed. The word he uses (ἔφυν) is the same (in participial form) that the Oracle at Delphi used to describe his father as “the one who begot you” (l. 793). If he were presently asking, “Was I conceived improperly?” the answer would be “Yes,” and it would stand as a partial explanation for his ill fortune. In accordance with prophecy, he was indeed born to punish Laios for his disobedience in regard to begetting a child with his wife. But this returns one’s thought to the paradox just identified (cf. m821), for Oidipous is the living embodiment both of his father’s impious misconception and of the god’s capacity to levy justice for that display of disrespect. Oidipous was conceived improperly (and ultimately ignominiously), but his birth nevertheless provided for the administration of divine justice. In the end, however, the opportunity to serve justice has become yet another example of a vital misconception requiring the god’s creation of yet another opportunity, this time in the form of a plague that prompts the city’s ruler to seek guidance from Delphi. This suggests that the city is doomed to an endless sequence of sufferings that are inflicted upon it by both Apollo’s and its own actions. This further suggests that no city—including Athens—can hope to see an end to the cyclical suffering in which it is caught unless it can solve the paradox of divine justice and injustice, of mortal service and opposition to the gods. [Mpei] [Aj] [P]