Oidipous pleads now by his reverent awe for the gods to be spared such a fate as he believes awaits him. The audience knows for certain that the fate he imagines is not the worst of it; he must suffer greater indignities. One may therefore pity Oidipous and at the same time admire him; after all, he is displaying the same resolve to avoid committing heinous crimes that he once showed when he decisively turned his back on Corinth and began the journey that would carry him to Thebes. But in conjuring the gods’ aid by dint of his reverential awe for them he recalls the comment he made just moments ago, when his words, or rather the words of the god speaking through him in double entendre, suggested that he is lacking in reverential awe. He is making claims upon a quality that the audience has reason to believe are in him either conflicted or absent. [Gd] [Aj] [Mpea]