The four types of κακά listed by the staffperson are “groan, ruinous folly, death, and disgrace.” Of these it is not entirely clear how the staffperson understands “ruinous folly” (ἄτη) in relation to the Theban royal family. The audience, however, is in a good position to apply this judgment to Oidipous, Iokaste, and even Laios. Indeed, the Chorus has itself already connected Oidipous with “wild frenzies” (ἄταις ἀγρίαις, l. 1205). The audience, however, has come to understand the wildness that occurs with loss of self-control as a consequence of the belief shared by Laios, Iokaste, Oidipous, and Athens that they can subvert a god’s pronouncements, and indeed that the effort to thwart the god is an entirely appropriate response to the forecast of intolerable circumstances. If the audience applies these judgments to its own situation and the defeat of its city as prophesied by the god, it will find a match with the groans already heard in Athens, the folly of the Athens’ opposition to prophecy, and the deaths already being produced by the combination of plague and war. The disgrace will perhaps not be manifest until the god makes it clear that he is making of Athens an example (παράδειγμα as the Chorus suggests of Oidipous at l. 1193). This will occur when ruin wrought upon it by plague and war is revealed to be the work of a god angered by Athens’ insistence on giving paramount importance to its own judgment and will. Just as Oidipous should be ashamed to discover that his ruin was justly visited upon him because his conception of piety fell short of the mark, Athens should, when confronted by this play, recognize that its own nascent downfall is the result of an insufficiency in its understanding of piety and the need to submit itself to the god’s direction. [P] [Mw] [Aj]