Teiresias repeats the word passion just used at l. 337, as if to underscore it. What is Oidipous’s passion—what causes his anger? Here it cannot be a reference to the sexual impropriety of his marriage. It has to stem from the fact that Teiresias is refusing to share his knowledge. From this perspective the audience may sympathize with Oidipous’s frustration, but this sympathy is tempered by its knowledge that Teiresias is almost certainly not keeping silent out of fear, or even out of the knowledge that Oidipous will not accept the truth, but from his relationship with the god, who has set a limit to what he may say. Oidipous’s passionate commitment to the city’s salvation sets everything else beneath it, including consideration of the gods and regard properly due their authorized agents. The difficulty is that Oidipous does not understand that setting the gods and their agents beneath the city’s wellbeing puts the city at jeopardy. The audience is now in a position to join Teiresias in recognizing this attitude, noble as it may seem, to be a source of the city’s pollution. That Oidipous’s frustration is about to erupt in anger and possible violence against the god’s mouthpiece only proves the point. That Teiresias’s comment expresses his understanding of this fact underscores both the validity and uselessness of his vision. [Mw] [Mea] [Md] [Mip]