Asking his daughters (and again implicitly the Athenian audience), who will “throw the dice” (παραρίψει) to forge a relationship with them, the emphasis on chance recalls the commitment to chance earlier expressed by both Iokaste and Oidipous in language reminiscent of philosophical positions very familiar in Athens, to the effect that men can calculate the chances of their success without recourse to divine guidance. Oidipous is right to observe that no thinking person would risk entering into an alliance with individuals marked by pollution, for a display of divine displeasure dooms such relationships. One should understand that “chance” serves the gods as a medium action in the mortal domain. Dice-throwing was for this reason a component of the consultational procedure at Delphi. There the consulter’s question was followed by a throw of the dice. The outcome of the throw determined which answer the god had given. One should not think, whether at Delphi or elsewhere, that the outcome of a throw of the dice was a matter of pure probability; it was open to influence by a divine being. The example of Laios and Iokaste, who threw the dice every time they had intercourse and again when they had their child exposed in the wilderness, and the example of Oidipous, who threw the dice whenever he struck someone or married, it is a mistake to regard events, and especially those foretold by prophecy, as a result of the application of human effort to probability. One does better to allow oneself to be guided by the gods. This begins by consulting Delphi on the premise that the “chance” in every throw of the dice in fact serves Apollo as a medium for communication. [Apaoc] [Mipc] [Dc]