When Oidipous repeatedly terms the god’s works “ills” it would seem that he is laying blame at Apollo’s feet; he seems to have missed the point that the god has wrought suffering in order to return him and Thebes to health. If he cannot appreciate the curative value of the truth, then the audience may have to distance itself from him. The city’s wellbeing is also at stake, and the populace of Thebes, like that of Athens, has the opportunity to understand the source of its suffering to lie not with the god but with its own collective attitudes and actions. [Mpei] [Ad] [Mw] [Mg] [Aj]