1) Reversals or "peripeteia":

Oedipus curses the murderer and it turns out he has cursed himself.The hunter turns into the prey; the investigator into the criminal; the doctor into the patient.

2) Metaphor of"Measure" one of Oedipus's favorite words. Measure,number, calculation, equation -- these are among the most important inventions which have brought man to power. "Man is the measure of all things." Equations: Man is not equated to gods but to himself. Oedipus equals Oedipus. There are two Oedipus's: One is tyrannos. The other is dark, shadowy, cursed.

What works out mathematically is that Oedipus equals Tiresias, blind but knowing
Oedipus equals Jocasta's son.
His mother equals his wife..
One oracle equals the other..


2 oracles: Oedipus and Jocasta's son have received the same, the equal, prophecy.

'An oracle came to Laius one fine day

............................................................

and it said

that doom would strike him down at the hands of a son,

our son, to be born of our own flesh and blood. But Laius,

so the report goes at least, was killed by strangers,

thieves, at a place where three roads meet . . . my son --

he wasn't three days old and the boy's father

fastened his ankles, had a henchman fling him away

on a barren, trackless mountain' (784-93).

If they are not true, if they are not equal, then religion is meaningless. The oracles must equal reality. After all, tragedy is an act of religious worship.