Iokaste is herself struck by Oidipous’s odd phrasing: “Why did he say ‘whomever’?” She seems to be recoiling from the sharp distinction between his exaggeration of the indefinite nature of the referent and her own vivid recall of precisely who this man is. From the Corinthian’s statements she can infer that the shepherd to whom she gave her son did not leave him to die but gave him to a fellow shepherd, who in turn gave him to Polybos and Merope to raise as their own. She should understand now, if she did not previously, why after the massacre at the crossroads he requested to be allowed to retire from the city; he had sabotaged the attempt to sabotage the prophecy. Willing or not, knowing or not, he had become a servant–even a savior–of prophecy itself. The instant he saw Laios killed, he would have inferred that the walking-stick killer might (or must) be the infant whose fetters he had removed and whom he had given to a Corinthian herdsman. The instant he saw Iokaste married to Laios’ killer, he would have inferred that son and mother were married. Not knowing of that prophecy, he would surely have been dismayed. Realizing that the shepherd was had identified Laios’ assailant with the infant in whose destruction he had chosen not to participate, Iokaste must now also know Oidipous to be her son. If Oidipous’s careful choice of obscure language is intended to postpone arrival at the terrible facts of parricide and incest, he can be presumed at some level of consciousness now to be aware of them. It is ironic that his efforts cannot impede either his own or her slow stumbling towards the truth. His use of obscure language is no longer capable of mystifying either her or himself. Perhaps the same can be said for the Pythia’s language; despite its prophetic form, it is in this instance impossible to miss its meaning. The same may be said of the Delphic prophecy giving Sparta the victory over Athens; it is proving impossible to construe the message in any other way. The challenge for Athens, then, is not to try toreinterpret the prophecy, but to discover how Apollo would instruct Athens to respond. [Gd] [Mip] [Mpea]