Responding to Oidipous’s question with what sounds like the formulaic opening of a fable (“Once upon a time . . .”) seems inappropriate, for what place does a fable have in this context? Oidipous wants a description of the man whose death has polluted the city and who therefore needs to be found and dealt with. That Kreon shifts to a narrative that provides information not obtained from the consultation and expressing his own view of events suggests that he is no longer relating information obtained at Delphi. Indeed, the divine transmission appears to have concluded with the naming of Laios. Kreon’s report reflects the procedure for an oracular consultation: an initial question (not recounted here presumably because it was formulated by Oidipous before dispatching Kreon on this embassy), the god’s response to it (96-8), follow-up questions either prepared in advance or formulated on the spot by the ambassador (99), and the god’s answers to them (100-1). The consultation concludes when the questioner judges that he has received sufficient instruction to be able to proceed on his own. [Mip]