Claiming to have thoroughly destroyed (διώλεσ’) the information that Oidipous seeks to obtain from him, Teiresias admits that he had it, and since it is not possible consciously to obliterate information, he must still have it. He chooses to withhold it either to protect himself, to protect Oidipous, or because it does not suit the god for him to disclose it. One must also think of the city; withholding information can be expected to delay the city’s purification. For the seer to protect either Oidipous or himself at the city’s expense would be reprehensible. If, however, Teiresias is doing the god’s bidding, then the city’s suffering is the god’s responsibility, and since the god has set plague upon Thebes, its suffering must be in keeping with his plan. Given that Teiresias is meant to serve the god, he might well be acting according to the god’s will and thus presumably in support of a divine plan meant to return the city to health. In that case there would be nothing reprehensible in his behavior. [Ad] [Apcma] [Md]