When Teiresias refers to the “filth” with which Oidipous would bespatter his mouth and Kreon’s, the audience will sense that the spattering of filth might extend all the way to Loxias, and if Oidipous’s filth can bespatter Apollo, so can Athens’. By the same measure, the disrespect for which Teiresias predicts that Oidipous will be repaid through being “ground down” more ignominiously than any other human being can also be applied to Athens. His threat promises that, while prophecy may be vulnerable to attack like the one being mounted by Oidipous, it is also capable of vindicating itself, or rather; the god is capable of vindicating it, as appears to be occurring both in Thebes and in Athens. [P] [Aj] [Mw]