Repeating the word “skill” (τέχνη at the beginning of the previous sentence; l. 380) juxtaposes the seer’s skills with Oidipous’s apparent skillfulness in defeating the Sphinx and the god’s unnoticed capacity to arrange for Oidipous to be made Thebes’ king and Iokaste’s husband. Oidipous’s observation that Teiresias was “born” or “created” (ἔφυ, l. 389) blind seems to underscore the insight that Teiresias’s skills are the god’s gift to him, just as rule over Thebes (and marriage to Iokaste) are gifts for which, as Oidipous has just said, he did not ask (l. 384). But where Teiresias’ss gifts come with a blindness that subject him to daily inconvenience, Oidipous’s blindness is not the result of the god’s gift, but is associated rather with his—and his father’s—unwilling compliance with the god’s prophetic word. In all cases prophecy is associated with blindness, but for the prophet both prophecy and blindness stem from the god, while for Oidipous and Laios the blindness stems from a rejection of prophecy. The seer’s skills are genuine and bespeak an appropriate relationship with prophecy and the gods, while Oidipous’s skills appear to be illusory and bespeak an inappropriate relationship with prophecy and the gods. That Oidipous is currently revealing truths to which he himself remains blind underscores the point that the god has the skill to work even through mortals who resist his message. [Mpea] [P] [Apamu]