In trying every avenue, whether turning to its royal patron, sacrificing to the gods on Olympos, or sending representatives to visit a site of local divination where Apollo’s will is read in the form of ashes, the city of Thebes is strikingly like Athens, which ca. 429 was in the throes of a devastating plague (Thuc. 2.47-54). Just as the Theban townspeople on stage are lobbying the representatives of their governmental and religious institutions and invoking the help of their deities, Athens, too, had her incense, prayers, and prophets (Thuc. 2.47.4). The response to the crisis in Thebes thus directly confronts the audience with the scene surrounding it in its own city and probably even partly visible to it from the amphitheater. The audience may therefore begin to draw parallels between Athens and Thebes and to evaluate the efforts staged in Thebes in relation to those already undertaken or now under discussion in the Athenian assembly. [Gt-a]