Questioning whether Oidipous knows from whom he comes, Teiresias seems to raise the issue of Oidipous’s parentage. This play does not present this question until later, if we suppose the audience to have been informed about this aspect of the story from another source (such as Aeschylus’s Oidipous), perhaps including the fact (to be presented later in this play) that Oidipous traveled to Delphi in order to discover the truth about his parents’ identity, its mention by Teiresias makes it clear that he is fully aware of these matters. The truth with which Teiresias seems fully conversant is that Oidipous has long since returned to his birthplace, even to the very bed in which he was born, which he now shares with the woman who gave birth to him. Teiresias’ss comment thus implies more than simple ignorance: it speaks to the failure of communication between Oidipous and Apollo at Delphi. Realization of this connection may in turn prompt the audience to make a further connection between a Delphic communication with Laios bearing on the same relationship. Mortal ignorance is not a matter of information to which one has no access; it is the result of a failure of communication between god and mortal. The consequences of this failure prove to be catastrophic. [Mpei] [Mi] [Mw]