too:/And caring thus for Laius, is but care/For mine own blooda" (12). The irony here is obvious: Oedipus has pledged to seek out whoever it was that killed Laius, with the same vigor that he would if it were a member of his family that he was avenging. Firstly, Oedipus has ultimately promised to destroy himself, since it was he who murdered Laius at the three-way crossroads. He goes so far as to tell the people of Thebes:
By what man's hand died Laius, your King,
Labdacus' son, I charge him that he bring
To me his knowledge. Let him feel no fear
If on a townsman's body he must clear
In essence, Oedipus has given his subject permission to implicate him in Laius' murder. The fact that he is responsible for the murder is obviously the crux of the play's tragedy, as Oedipus fulfills his promise to uncover the killer's identity, and destroys himself in the process as a result of his own arrogance and refusal to see the truth (Winnington-Ingram 191). In
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