The Chorus may mean to say that it pities Oidipous’s state of mind (νοῦ), but this will prompt the audience to connect Oidipous’s present misery with the mind to which he and Thebes have attributed every success and in which he and the townspeople have placed all their faith, the mind to which they attributed the defeat of a supernatural being and from which they have expected salvation from every threat to the city. The audience can see, however, that rather than saving the city, Thebes’ reliance on Oidipous’s strength of mind was pestilential, or to use Oidipous’s word: ὀλέθριοn (l. 1341), and the audience will understand that, properly understood, the Chorus’s address to him as δείλαιε, “paltry/miserable/wretched of mind,” is accurate. The Thebans, however, do not realize that the value they have placed on mind is the cause of their problems. They are thus likely to persist in their error and so to insure that their town’s miseries persist. The fact that Athens similarly places high value on its capacity for rational government should concern the audience and prompt it to consider devaluing mind and elevating divine support and assistance to their former importance. [Mg] [Mpea] [Dnc]