With the revelation that yet another shepherd was involved in the baby’s rescue, Oidipous both advances another step towards discovery of his own identity and at the same time acquires yet another link to investigate. The audience may nevertheless anticipate that this will be the last link joining Oidipous to his ultimate confrontation with the truth, for the infant’s transit can now be seen to have been perfectly symmetrical: at either end the adoptive and natural parents; next on either side the two shepherd, one of Corinth, one of Thebes. Oidipous’s investigative journey has now arrived at the mid-point in the infant’s transit, the transition between the two shepherds. As every stage in the infant’s communication from Thebes to Corinth can be presumed to have been managed by Apollo, the audience may find an analogy between it and the several parties to communication of Apollo’s messages between himself and their recipients: Apollo to the Pythia to the interpreting priest or priestess to the consulter. The analogy proves instructive if the consulter is identified as Oidipous. He qualifies the Corinthian stranger as a witness on the condition that he can provide clarification for his statement. Oidipous’s confidence in this shepherd’s facility with explanatory speech suggests a contrastive comparision with the Pythia, a local woman with no particular training or qualifications in language or rhetoric. Oidipous displays a clear preference for the bearer of a mortal thought, be he ever so humble. If he were for a moment to take seriously the prophecies he knows, he would not, however, need any clarification from the shepherd. All has already been made sufficiently clear. And while he is ready to trust the account of a simple shepherd, the audience will obsrve that he is so mistrusts prophecy that he refuses to give it reasonable consideration. [Md] [Mip] [Mpea]