That Oidipous greets the confirmation of Polybos’s death with a new question is consistent with his previous behavior. His mind is as always at work to assess and evaluate the implications of any new data it receives. Yet his efforts seem pointless here, for he knows without being told that he had nothing to do with Polybos’s death, and therefore it cannot matter how Polybos died. This question would be better put to the witness of the attack at the crossroads. His question can only be meant to put beyond even the slightest doubt that the facts contradict the Pythia’s prophecy that he will kill his father. That he asks this question at all, then, suggests the degree to which he respects and fears the prophecy; despite certain knowledge that he had nothing to do with Polybos’s death, he still worries that the prophecy may somehow have been realized. This inconsistency may suggest another one, its opposite: that when Oidipous could and should have tested the prophecy he did not. He has never wondered if any member of the small group he killed might be his father, and he has not once wondered whether Laios, known to have died a violent death, might not somehow have been killed by a son born to him and Iokaste. The audience will observe, then, that as ruthlessly inquisitive as Oidipous may at times be, his thought processes are inconsistent, for he brings them to bear only when he sees some point in it, while his ignorance and false assumptions lead him to miss significant opportunites. [Md] [Mpea]