The herdsman’s reluctance provokes Oidipous to threaten physical pain. At a similar impasse earlier in the play, Oidipous similarly lost his temper with Teiresias. When Teiresias was persuaded by Oidipous’s threats and insults not only to answer the questions put to him but to hint at further knowledge, Oidipous concluded that the seer must be lying. Is he now more inclined to accept the truth when he hears it from his own slave? Is he more disposed to obtain the truth from one of the lowliest members of human society than from the town’s seer or even the pan-hellenic institution of prophecy at Delphi? What does this say about Oidipous—that he sets the integrity and veracity of the Oracle below that of a herdsman? How might the god be expected to respond to this affront—not with anger and violence? It is ironic and even just that, when provoked by Oidipous’s reluctance, the god threatened grievous consequences, just as a generation earlier he had threatened Laios with death. Human justice is in this case a mask for intimidation and compulsion, while divine justice, which to mortals may seem to be heavy-handed and arbitrary, is in fact dictated by a necessity of which mortals remain ignorant. [Mg] [Md] [Aj] [Dn]