While the Chorus begins to express its own thoughts in song and dance, the audience may keep some of its attention on the self-destructive violence it can only imagine must now be transpiring within the palace. Meanwhile, if the Chorus is going to sing rather than intervene, it might rejoice in the fact that its earlier prayer has been answered; that the high-footed laws have been enforced gives it new reason to dance in honor of the Olympian gods, for Apollo’s long-ago prophecies to Laios whose fading the Chorus has just now decried (ll. 906-10) have made a vivid comeback. Divinity is clearly on the rise. Apollo is once again resplendent in his power. [Ap] [Aj] [Mi] The townsfolk should therefore now offer their obeisance to Apollo and acknowledge his oracles and prophets. [P] Yet this is not at all the vein in which they begin to express themselves. Rather, they raise a lament for all mankind, concluding from what they have witnessed that human life is equal to nothing (ἴσα καὶ τὸ μηδὲν); it has neither value nor meaning. [Mpei] The idea of equality has previously been expressed in this play in a variety of circumstances, as when the leader of the suppliants says that he does not make Oidipous equal to a god (l. 31) but then urges him to be equal to himself on the occasion when he rid Thebes of the Sphinx (l. 53). The word has also been used to point up the difference between one and many in regard to the number of Laios’ assailants upon which Oidipous’s identification as Laios’ killer hinges, as when he declares that he must interview the herdsman who reported Laios’ killers to have been numerous while Oidipous was alone on the road, and since “one is not equal to many” (l. 865), Oidipous cannot have killed Laios. Unfortunately, the Theban citizenry have indeed set Oidipous equal to or even higher than a god, the herdsman fabricated his report, and now that the consequences for these and many other errors have been made manifest, the Chorus is committing yet another error; it is treating the woes to which it is witness as signs that the world operates blindly. The Chorus’s pessimistic assessment of man’s chances for happiness suggest that it has learned nothing from the demonstration of power, justice, planning, and patience created by the god especially for its edification. Because mortals are not equal to gods, the lives they lead can be equal to more than nothing. Mortal life can have meaning, value, and satisfaction through a genuine two-way relationship with their gods. [Dnc] Otherwise the people, like Oidipous, deserve their misfortunes, both those in the past and those that may be about to befall them. [Mw] The Athenian audience, which may likewise be bemoaning its lot without considering that, like Oidipous, its affronts to Apollo require the god’s vigorous response, will have to do better than the Chorus at understanding the display of divine power that has been put on for its benefit. It must see that if mortals are to fare better than Oidipous they must find an alternative to the philosophical stance embraced by the Theban ruling family, with it all Thebes, and like it: Athens, a stance that will not allow it to obtain the god’s help in distinguishing between the more and the less salubrious, the more and the less insightful, the more and the less appropriate, the more and the less pious attitude. [Mg] It should trust rather in the gods’ help by submitting to them for instruction when faring poorly, gratefully accept whatever instructions the god may issue, and follow them assiduously. When faring well, the city must gratefully recall its debt to the gods by honoring them and the media by which they convey their help to mortals: the institutional apparatus for prophecy. [Mip]