Is it true that men can never want? Do they have no need of divine assistance? In Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes he calls “savage maledictions” upon them (ll. 785-6). That his sons are to die at one another’s hands and that Oidipous has been informed that they begin life at a terrible disadvantage due to their birth, as he began life at a terrible disadvantage due to his own birth, clearly indicates that there is every reason for concern, and that he is the one to address their wellbeing. If he is to do that, he must reverse the curse already placed upon them by his actions; he must think of what he can do to remove them from the straits in which his action have placed them. This should mean considering the kind of action it was. He is clearly not minded to do this, but the audience can think for him that it was his resistance to prophecy, his belief that he must take matters into his own hands rather than placing his faith in divine instruction and divine powers, that has cursed them. The antidote, then, is to be sought in divine counsel. Rather than dissuading Kreon of the need to consult Delphi, he should urge it, not for his own sake, but for that of his children and his city, for when his sons go to war with one another, they will bring war to the gates of Thebes, just as war has recently been brought to Athens. [Mip] [Mw] [Gt-a] In light of the trans-generational pollution affecting Thebes, the audience might now trace its own city’s problems back to the attitudes and actions of an older generation—perhaps those who fought and defeated Persia. To the extent that Athens attributes that astonishing success to its own capacity to provide for itself without the need for divine assistance, and so to encourage it to proceed without resort to divine guidance available to it at Delphi, Athens may see itself in Thebes’ belief that Oidipous was able to subdue the Sphinx unaided by man or god and in Laios and Iokaste’s belief that they could simply ignore the god’s instructions to forego some of life’s pleasures. For these errors in judgment Athens can presume that it, like Thebes, has invited divine correction. [Mpea] [P] [Aj] [Mw]