It would seem that Laios had gone to consult the Oracle. Kreon’s answer to this new question must come from his own knowledge. We have no indication from other sources that this was already known to the audience. If as Kreon’s words suggest Laios was on embassy to consult the Oracle, then Delphi stands as a terminus of both men’s journies; for Oidipous as point of departure, for Laios as goal. Kreon does not make clear why Laios was on his way to Delphi. Nor has he made absolutely clear the sequence of key events. When in relation to Laios’s departure, for example, did the Sphinx appear? Kreon has said that Laios ruled until Oidipous took the reins of office, suggesting that no appreciable amount of time passed between Laios’ death and Oidipous’s accession to power. We know too that Oidipous was able to dispatch the Sphinx with just a single word—the encounter was brief. Yet the monster’s predations, not described in this play but known to entail its devouring the city’s finest young men, must have continued for some time. We hear from the priest that Oidipous solved the riddle without any aid or instruction. Thus, he cannot have been present in Thebes when the victims were taken. So, if the Sphinx had been worrying Thebes for some time, and if no appreciable time passed between Laios’s death and Oidipous’s appearance, then it is reasonable to infer that Laios was on his way to Delphi to seek instruction, how to deal with the “exacting singer.” Thus, the one man was traveling from the Sphinx (at Thebes) to Delphi while the other’s travels took him from Delphi to the Sphinx and Thebes. The two journeys mirror each other, and this ties together a succession of connections: between the plague in Thebes and Laios’s death, between Laios’s death and Oidipous, between both Oidipous and Laios and the Sphinx, and between both Oidipous and Laios and Delphi. That Apollo is implied in many of these connections suggests that the god sending the prophecies may also be the god sending the plague, and perhaps even that this same god placed the Sphinx. [Apcma] [Apaon] [Apaos] In light of the parallel between these connections and the opening of the Iliad, where the god’s actions stem from the mistreatment of his priest, the appearance in Thebes of first the Sphinx and then the plague suggests that if these events are in fact directed by Apollo, they would be responses to earlier misdeeds in the form of some disrespect shown towards one of his servants. [Gm] [P] This raises the question, what the misdeeds were. Given the parallels with Athens, what, then, are this city’s misdeeds? [Gt-a] The play’s spectators now engage in an investigation of their own running parallel to that underway on stage, and it might note that where Oidipous is acting on instructions from the god Athens is acting to counter the assurances given Delphi. This thought implicates the audience, through its membership in the Assembly, including the Council (its steering committee) in discussions, whether to consult Delphi regarding the present crisis, and its decision that Athens would do best not to consult. [Aj]