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The basic theme of Oedipus Rex is the irony of fate. No mortal man, no matter how powerful and wealthy, can be pronounced happy until he is dead; for no man, however wise, knows what tomorrow will bring. This is the burden of the last complete choral song and of the last lines of the play (which are sometimes called spurious). Oedipus confesses that he killed a man at the crossroads in anger. He has angry clashes with Teiresias and Creon. Oedipus is guilty of pride and temper, injustice as a ruler and an unorthodox attitude toward seers and oracles. However (l.1329), after the catastrophe, although Oedipus cites Apollo as the author of his misf