Teiresias’ss reference to killing of father and fathering children with mother will trigger the audience’s recollection of the prophecies central to Oidipous’s myth. [Gm] The parallel should strike Oidipous himself in regard to the prophecy he received of the Delphic priestess and to realize that Teiresias’ss revelations square neatly with them. The seer’s use of sowing as a metaphor for sexual intercourse enables the audience, in any case, to make a connection between the spousal intercourse explicitly forbidden Laios and Okaste by the god and the intercourse forbidden Oidipous and his mother by incest tabu. That the women of Thebes cannot be delivered of their babies appears to be a consequence of the offenses of two consecutive generations. The Athenian audience might draw a further parallel between the reproductive barrenness in Thebes and the present wastage of Athenian crops at the hands of the Spartans. The parallel implies that the calamities in both cities can be traced to a common cause. In Thebes, this must be the ruling family’s repeated failure to heed (λογίζεσθαι) words of prophecy. If the Athenian audience seeks a similar cause for its troubles, it will have to consider its own attitudes and decision vis-à-vis Delphi. [P] [Md] [Mw] [Aj] [Mi]