While Oidipous characterizes the seer’s accusation as “shameless” and portrays it as if it were “a beast, a monster, an evil agent that should have been left untouched,” the audience knows that it stems from the god that its careful preservation by Teiresias, the god’s acknowledged prophet, deserves the respectful attention that the audience will just have given it. This makes it clear not only that Oidipous is in fact the shameful one, but that his attitude towards the prophet spills over onto prophecy, including the Delphic Oracle, and the god for whom both are authorized to speak. It is this error that has “unleashed” a plague upon the town. [Mpe] [Apcma] [Mw]