The sole survivor’s report was indeed false. The example of the unreliable witness offers the audience a credible demonstration of how emotion taints the transmission of information, which in turn taints any conclusions based upon it and renders them worse than useless; misleading information leads only to misdirection and delay. One is led to observe that if human inquiry is ever to succeed it must first purge itself of contamination through self-interest and the emotions it engenders, such as fear and hope, and of unwarranted confidence in the powers of reason. But accepting that human inquiry is so vulnerable to error, what other recourse do mortals have? Apollo’s evident intervention suggests that the god is committed to helping the process to a meaningful conclusion and that Apollo has some expectation that this can be accomplished through his own capacity for communication and action in the mortal domain. [Ad] [Apc] [Apa] [D]
Lines 124-129
Oidipous: How would a bandit come to such a brazen act,
Unless impelled by silver stemming from right here?78
Kreon: This seemed in fact to be the case, yet with Laios dead,
No one came forth to take his part against the doers of the evil deed.
Oidipous: What sort of trouble was afoot,79
That sovereign power toppled, blocked a full investigation?80