The staffperson concludes her observations with an assessment that the pain most keenly felt is that which is self-inflicted. Applied to Iokaste, the suicide may be less keenly felt than the realization that she was living in incest with her son, who is also Laios’ murderer. That realization was not, however, self-inflicted. It does bear upon a situation of her own making: intercourse with Laios and her subsequent participation in the attempt on the life of her newborn. Those actions later inflicted the keenest pain, but only with Apollo’s complex intervention. [Mw] [Md] [P] [Aj] Given the parallels between Apollo’s interventions at Thebes and Athens, the Athenian audience might consider its plague and war are of its own making and they will eventuate in the most keenly felt pain. This seems to corroborate the conclusion that more is at stake than a deed’s effects; the doer’s suffering or wellbeing depend upon the relationship between the individual or collective performing the deed and Apollo. Consequently, if Athens works to negate the Delphic prophecy of a Spartan victory, it will discover the defeat to which it must be subjected to be worse than willing submission. Since it is a matter of degrees, the least painful result, while still hard to bear, will not be as severe as the most painful result. The wisest course is to accept the lesser pain in order to comply with the god. [Gt-a] [Mpea] [Mip]