Acknowledging the Chorus of citizens as “of this land held always highest in esteem,” the staffperson (here taken to be a woman, since she has access to Iokaste’s bedchamber) sets these ordinary Thebans on a par with the royals and even the gods. Even if the royals are now either dead or unfit for rule, this member of the palace staff cannot be acknowledging an elevation of the people’s status and authority, for that has only just now become the case; it was not “always” so. The terms of address thus have the ring of the opening of a formal speech made to the Athenian Assembly. This blurring of the lines between the Theban and Athenian bodies politic encourages the transfer of qualities from the one to the other. Where the Thebans’ demonstration of piety has been inconsistent, the audience may extend to Athens the impiety in which all Thebes–rulers and populace alike–seems to share. The implication may make the Athenian audience uncomfortable and to seek to deflect the charge by declining an honor to which it may no longer wish to lay claim. Not to itself but to the gods must go the preeminent honors and the highest esteem. [Gt-a] [P] [Md]