Lamenting the fact that wealth, power, and exceptional talent offer no protection against envy Oidipous advertises his belief, held confidently until just now, that these very qualities do afford adequate protections. Recognizing this error, the audience should now wonder what qualities might in fact afford some measure of protection against the risks and dangers of intense competition. This is a pressing political issue, for Athens itself is presently engaged in a most intense competition for the preservation of her position of wealth and power through the exercise of her much-vaunted naval skills. [Gt-a] Like Oidipous, Athens believes herself to be the envy of the world. Also like Oidipous, Athens has received a prophecy that she will not abide. If the Athenian electorate has plausibly assumed that envy motivated the Delphic prophecy in favor of Sparta, Oidipous’s example now gives the Athenian audience grounds to consider that the god, not envy, may be the immediate source of that prophecy. The source of the city’s problems is not its success but its arrogant attribution of that success solely to its own skills. [Mpea] [P]