Mentioning that the curse will have its effect “eventually” (ποτ’), contrasting “now” and “later” (νῦν . . . ἔπειτα), and posing the rhetorical question, “Where will your shout not make port?” all suggest that Teiresias has certain knowledge that Oidipous’s moment of realization lies somewhere in the future, and if Oidipous were able to understand the seer’s words at this moment, he should surely shout loudly enough to be heard far and wide. If, however, such a shout might deafen the audience, even more deafening is Oidipous’s silence. For how could a man with any capacity of memory and reason not connect Teiresias’ss statements with those of the Delphic Oracle and the circumstances preceding and following his own visit to Delphi? How could he fail to make the connection between what was foretold and what has since occurred? This problem is now set before the audience, which must feel impelled to understand Oidipous’s failure to correlate prophecies and events. Of course, as we know from Thucydides, Athens was itself obstinately refusing to correlate its present plague with Apollo’s promise, expressed at Delphi, to help Sparta in its war effort against Athens. Surely in Athens it was noted that plague was traditionally associated with Apollo, Apollo had promised to aid Sparta, and Athens had then been beset by plague. And yet Athens, like Oidipous, refused to accept the causality, or perhaps even to grant the relationship among these three premises. In the context of the play, however, no matter how understandable Oidipous’s failure thus far to connect the dots, the myth leaves no doubt that they are connected and that he will himself eventually be induced to connect them. The juxtaposition of the situations in Thebes and Athens argues, then, that no matter how improbable or tenuous such connections may seem to the Athenian citizenry, the god’s interest in the matter, which had been expressed at Delphi, must be given consideration. [Mp] [Mi] [Gt-a] [Apcma] [D]