In the qualification, “not at least while I was standing by,” the audience may detect a deft sidestepping of the truth, for if Teiresias did make mention of Oidipous, it need not have occurred in Kreon’s presence. Rather, as brother and brother-in-law, Kreon may have heard of the seer’s prophecy indirectly from Laios or Iokaste. The clever qualification strongly suggests both that Kreon is now in the know and that he is at pains to keep this knowledge to himself. No longer trying to disabuse Oidipous of his errors, Kreon now allows them to go uncontested. This he can only do, however, by sacrificing his own defense against Oidipous’s charge of treason. He must be less concerned with protecting himself than with protecting Oidipous. His selflessness nonetheless contributes to Oidipous’s continued blindness. If the god is at work to reveal to Oidipous and the world the fulfillment of prophecy, and if, as appears to be the case, he depends upon mortals to serve as a medium by which prophecy is fulfilled, his work appears to be hampered by the best of mortal impulses. How, then, is the god ever to bring his project to a conclusion? [Md] [Apam]