The priest seems to be open to the possibility that Oidipous will not continue to rule Thebes. He also considers the possibility that the entire population may be destroyed. [Mw] At this the audience will interrogate the myth in its various versions, none of which foresees the town’s utter destruction. The plague may, however, reduce the population, as it and the Peloponnesian War are dramatically reducing the population of Athens. That affirms the judgment that it is better to rule a city full of people rather than deplete. Yet as obvious as this may seem, Athens, to retain hegemony, has in fact elected to sacrifice a part of its population. The parallel suggests that Thebes may have more choice in its own fate than it has realized. The plague, then, is not the primary cause of the city’s. problems, but a symptom, a device to call the town’s attention to the necessity of making a change. The parallel may further suggest, then, that the plague in Athens is similarly meant to call the city’s attention to the necessity of making a change, either in policy, leadership, or both. [Apaon] [Gt-a]