Teiresias’s statement confirms what the audience has inferred: the prophet is only a messenger for the god. It is the god who sees to a prophecy’s realization. Oidipous seems to think that prophecy is a rhetorical ploy used to trick the gullible. Teiresias’s statement may prompt it to reconsider the possibility that prophecy might be genuine, in which case the proper response to it would be quite different than the disdain expressed by Oidipous. [Mip] [Apa] [Apc] [Md]