Oidipous’s reference to bird augury and other forms of prophecy echoes the priest’s earlier speech, when he asked Oidipous if he could find a defense for the city, “[w]hether having obtained a message from some god/ Or maybe knowing something from a man” (ll. 42-3). The priest was anticipating that Oidipous’s most promising source of assistance would be divine, although he did allow for the possibility of a solution provided by purely human agency. Oidipous in fact had no other recourse, however, than to dispatch Kreon to Delphi for divine guidance, and now that it has been determined that further information is needed, Oidipous agrees to consult the seer Teiresias as another of the god’s intermediaries. In both word and deed, then, Oidipous shows that he views the god’s intermediaries as a valuable and necessary source of assistance. This most independent of thinkers thus continues to admit his limitations and to seek divine guidance. This confronts the audience with Oidipous’s humbler and more pious aspect. As the ruler places himself entirely in the seer’s carethe audience, however, can anticipate that this will produce the revelation promised by myth. Thus, even as he submits to the wisdom of consulting the god’s intermediaries, Oidipous appears to lay himself open to the most hideous of sufferings. For so rewarding such humility and trust, the god seems to show himself to be frightfully cruel and unjust. [Md] [Ad] [Aj]