The Chorus ends this stasimon by making a confession. What it confesses, however, can be read in several ways; that it lives and dies with Oidipous, that thanks to Oidipous it survived the Sphinx, that due to him it has now been destroyed, and that having been saved by him, it went to sleep at night thinking of him. In any of these attitudes, as the audience can judge, it would err, for life and death are conferred by the gods. Apollo contrived the victory over the Sphinx and thus the town’s salvation, which led to the polluted marriage and rule resulting in the town’s pollution manifested as plague, and thus the town’s destruction. Having been made intensely aware of Apollo’s interventions, the audience might again sense that even in its present speech the Chorus is serving as his mouthpiece. [Gd] Thus, when the Chorus says “truth be told,” the audience can interpret: Apollo, not Oidipous, saved the city, which took Oidipous, not Apollo, to be its savior, and so Thebes put its faith in Oidipous’s direction rather than seeking it from the god. [Apa] [Mw] That Thebes has “laid its eye to rest” implies that the town has relied upon Oidipous to act as its organ of sight, yet having become keenly aware of his vision’s limitations, the audience can see the error in relying upon it. As Teiresias first pointed out, Oidipous failed to see clearly who he was, where he was, and with whom he was living. Thus, as the audience tests the Chorus’s metaphor, it must realize what a mistake it is to cede one’s capacity for clearsightedness to any temporal ruler, no matter how seemingly gifted. If one seeks clarity of vision, it must be obtained via the services of an actual god, such as Apollo. [Mpei] [Mg] [Mi]