While the Chorus must be characterizing the nature of the misfortunes that have befallen him, ἀγρίαις suggests the savagery of a wild beast. Supposing Oidipous’s misfortunes to have been designed by Apollo, it would be shockingly impious to describe divine actions in this way. The audience might withdraw from the town’s perspective and realize that, while Thebes may be speaking out of ignorance, its ignorance is a failing that it could correct. It is in fact polluted by clinging to an ignorance that it could cure by heeding the words of its prophets: Teiresias and Delphi. The savagery associated with Oidipous’s suffering stems from the sexual coupling with his mother and the violence with which he struck down his father and then proceeded to lay waste to the rest of his party. The audience will associate those actions with his frenzied recoil from the Pythia. His response to that interaction has the marks of an intemperate, immoderate, undisciplined, wild, and even savage spirit. [Md]