Continuing to address his daughters in language that implicitly includes the audience (second person plural), Oidipous’s words prompt Athens to consider the moment when it will be “ripe” for marriage (πρὸς γάμων . . . ἀκμάς). The next generation of Athenians faces the same question: Will any other city want to make alliance with them? The attitudes with which that generation is currently being instilled will make it an undesirable partner. That the source of the girls’ pollution is the man presently commiserating with them will encourage Athenians to take a new and more critical perspective on their rulers’ protestations of sympathy (cf. Pericles’ funeral speech) for the grief the city is already having to endure. [Md] [Mg] [Mw]