In this instance, the Corinthian speaks glowingly of Oidipous’s ignorance; “It’s so beautifully clear you know not what you do,” as though it were something to be pleased about. These words echo those spoken earlier by Teiresias (ll. 366-7), though taking a very different tone, for Teiresias had been at pains to avoid speaking, lest his words prove as “unseasonal” as those of Oidipous, and when finally baited into revealing the truth, Teiresias expressed the utmost disdain for Oidipous’s ignorance. The Corinthian delights in Oidipous’s ignorance because it presents him with an opportunity to rid him of his anxieties and thus to do him what he believes to be a great service, but to the audience this only reveals the extent of his own ignorance; he has no idea of the part he is to play in unmasking the truth about Oidipous. If he is doing anyone a service, it is Apollo. The audience can see from this that the god can employ any man, even one who believes himself to be operating entirely according to his own conception in a project designed for his own benefit. [Apcmu] [Mpei]