The priest’s anticipation that Oidipous might obtain a god’s help or have received a god’s prophetic word (φήμην) suggests that he seems indeed to be thinking of defense against the plague in terms of consultation with a prophet or an oracle, not in the future, however, but in the past. The audience will again recall that Oidipous’s well-known biography does indeed involve a past consultation with Delphi—with dire results. Can there be some connection between that terrible prophecy and a remedy for the plague presently raging in Thebes beyond the fact, already recognized, that prophecy stipulated intercourse with his mother and myth (Homer) described their children as abominable, and now Thebes’ women bring forth no children at all.