Kendrick would rather go to prison than die. Also a play on the near homophone of “pen” and “pin”. In bowling, the object of the game is to knock down all of the pins. He would rather fail at his goals then die before he gets to attempt them.

He would rather see this:

Than this:

Direct allusion to Aesop’s 226th Fable “The Tortoise and the Hare”.

He would rather move like a turtle so he can appreciate life. However, this slow lane is also sheltering him from the realities of the fast life, the fact that his uncle has been killed and he lives in this “maad city”.

If Teiresias was a true prophet he would not hold back and tell Oedipus the truth. However, Teiresias knows Oedipus' fate is so heinous that he is hesitant to tell him.

This describes Oedipus. Oedipus is seen as a heroic traveler who helped Thebes in its time of need. However it will soon be revealed that Oedipus was born in Thebes and was the son of Laius and Jocasta.

Not this Bane

Teiresias says that even though Oedipus has great qualities they are also part of his downfall. His shrewdness in riddle-solving landed him in his current, tragic situation.

Of course, Oedipus isn’t shrewd enough to know everything. It has often been suggested that while “man” is the correct answer to the Sphinx’s riddle, he himself is the more specific answer:

The Sphinx’s riddle echoes throughout the play, even though Sophocles never mentions the actual question she asked. Audiences would have known the Sphinx’s words: “what is it that goes on four feet in the morning, two feet at midday, and three feet in the evening?” Oedipus’s answer, of course, was “a man.” And in the course of the play, Oedipus himself proves to be that same man, an embodiment of the Sphinx’s riddle. There is much talk of Oedipus’s birth and his exposure as an infant; here is the baby of which the Sphinx speaks, crawling on four feet (even though two of Oedipus’s are pinioned). Oedipus throughout most of the play is the adult man, standing on his own two feet instead of relying on others, even gods. And at the end of the play, Oedipus will leave Thebes an old blind man, using a cane. In fact, Oedipus’s name means “swollen foot” because of the pins through his ankles as a baby; thus even as a baby and a young man he has a limp and uses a cane: a prefiguring of the “three-legged” old man he will become. Oedipus is more than merely the solver of the Sphinx’s riddle, he himself is the answer.

When Oedipus originally came to Thebes he became king because he answered the Sphinx’s riddle.

What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?

Teiresias derides him, in a way, about this saying that if anyone knew how to solve a cryptic answer it would be Oedipus himself.

Oedipus may think that Teiresias is a fool, but his parents are the victims of Oedipus' heinous fate and therefore respect his intelligence.

Teiresias knows that Oedipus will not take kindly to the revelation of his fate and at first is hesitant to reveal it to him.

Flavius wants to know why the men are out in the streets instead of working. The commoner responds that they are going to see Caesar.