this stain" that is plaguing Thebes. But the irony is that the unknown one is himself and that to pursue his own interest as king is to pursue against his interest as a man and as king. Once he figures everything out he will help himself and help Laius, who was unjustly (as everyone thinks) slain by the one unknown (Oedipus himself). Commitment to the cleansing of Thebes in this speech is really a commitment to his own destruction, not to mention the shared public horror at the discovery of the secret of the plague. That horror causes havoc--Jocasta's death, the unspoken but obvious fact that the royal children (Antigone, Ismene) discover that they are the products of incest. It enriches the irony that in this speech Oedipus calls on the people of Thebes, whom he calls áhis children, to seal his commitment with ritual, or "suppliant boughs" (35).
Oedipus then leaves the platform, allowing the Chorus to bemoan the plague
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