The Chorus’s calling Oidipous βασιλεύς rather than τύραννος may be tactful, but given the fact that he is not present, having fled the stage in dismay, such tact seems unnecessary. Its excessive care in this seems to betray an unseemly obsequiousness. It still regards Oidipous, as it did when he came in response to their supplication, as equal to a god. But the perception of equality presumed that the gods could not or would not respond to prayer. Given what it has seen and heard, the citizenry should presently be thinking differently about divine powers and worrying about the way in which its own speech and actions slights the gods. In the face of Apollo’s magnificent display of perspicacity and his capacity to effect change, his willingness to help the city, and his support of prophetic insitutions to serve as media for communication between the city and him, the city should now be acknowledging him, not Oidipous, as its savior. [Mi] [Ad] [Apc] [Apa] [P]