In refuting Oidipous’s accusation that he wishes to stand beside Kreon’s throne (l. 400), Teiresias changes the tense to the future perfect (γεγράψομαι: “I will not have been enrolled,” and “I will not be indicted”); he might be heard to be prophesying that at some point in the future it will have been made apparent that his service was devoted to the god, and there will therefore be no indictment for his having enlisted with Kreon in order to obtain the benefits of Kreon’s patronage. The prophetic quality of this speech suggests that Teiresias already knows how his actions will be judged, and the audience, already knowing that the seer’s accusation is informed by prophetic insight rather than conspiratorial machinations, again finds itself in a good position from which to assess the accuracy of the seer’s pronouncement and to understand that whatever political implications it may seem to have, these will not prove to have been of any significance. The audience will infer that this is because the god stands above the political arena, supporting neither private nor factional interests. He is concerned rather with pollution, which arises from action expressive of moral and religious attitudes. The insights he affords his seers and oracles similarly serve moral and religious rather than political interests. [Aj] [Apcma]