But Oedipus does not regard this attitude as sincere. Previously, Ismene, his daughter, had warned him that Kreon would come:
To set thee near their land, that thou mayst be
Beyond their borders but within their power.[62]
In the opinion of Ismene, Oedipus can never return to his home; she says[63]:
The blood of kindred cleaving to thy hand,
Father, forbids thee.
This statement interprets the act of Oedipus as parricide rather than as homicide, for, assuming that the act was quasi-involuntary, the removal of pollution required, in the former conception, the forgiveness of the dying, whereas in the latter conception it required only the consent of the relatives to ‘appeasement.’ Ismene implies that, whatever attitude Kreon and the other relatives of Laius adopt, Oedipus can never return, because Laius has not forgiven his slayer.
Kreon betrays a similar attitude of mind when he says[64] to Theseus that he did not think the citizens of Athens would give refuge to ‘a man incestuous and a parricide....’ He says:
Such was the mount of Ares that I knew ...
That suffers no such lawless runaways