From the Chorus’s description of Iokaste’s anguished departure and its knowledge of the legend, the audience can anticipate that she is going to hang herself from the ceiling of her bedchamber. From her state of mind the Chorus is able to anticipate something of this nature. That it feels impelled to draw Oidipous’s attention to the untoward signs only calls the audience’s attention to Oidipous’s imperviousness to his wife’s state of mind. His intense self-absorption seems to be a symptom of a kind of derangement resulting from the stunning conclusion to which all the evidence ever more insistently points but has nevertheless not yet fully registered in Oidipous’s conscious thoughts. His self-absorption reveals itself to be the state to which his mind will go when struck a stunning blow. [Mpei] [Md]