When Oidipous adds that his soul groans for itself, he seems to speak rhetorically, especially since he has no idea how sharp will be the pain that he is soon to feel. Anticipating the moment of Oidipous’s great suffering, the audience will move ahead to imagine that point in time when the gods disclose to Oidipous before all mankind the truth of his situation. From this vantage Oidipous’s present claim to feel the people’s pain more keenly than they do falls short. It is not that he is being disingenuous, however, for his sincerity need not be questioned, but that the depth of his ignorance throws the value of his sincerity into question. [Md] [Mpei] An Athenian might readily have thought of Pericles, who in the funeral oration reconstructed by Thucydides famously expresses grief for the losses inflicted on Athens by war and plague. Athens need question not his sincerity but his perspicacity; he neither properly appreciates the pain of his citizens nor anticipates the depth of the pain he is himself to feel when he discovers his own culpability. Once this has been revealed Oidipous will grieve far more intensely than he does now, and then only for himself and his own family, for by his suffering the city will be freed of its. The leader’s profession of empathy is to be regarded with suspicion; it is based upon ignorance. Rather than trusting in the oneness of leadership and people, the people should understand that their wellbeing can only come about when the leadership has been separted from it. [Mpei] [Mg] [Mw]