In Part I of Oedipus the King , Creon returns from the Delphic oracle with a crucial message from the god Apollo. The oracle's instructions are that the plague afflicting Thebes will only end when the murderer of the former king, Laius, is found and punished. The oracle reveals that the killer still lives in Thebes and must be driven out to lift the city's suffering. Creon conveys this to Oedipus and the citizens, prompting Oedipus to vow to find and punish the murderer, even under threat of exile for anyone who withholds information about the crime
