Oidipous may be asking either what the public expects of him or why it wants him to concede. If the former, then he has accepted Iokaste’s argument that piety is necessary as a basis for conflict resolution and the Chorus’s argument that the gods will in any case compel compliance. If the latter, then he has not comprehended their arguments. The audience can be expected to reject the idea that he cannot comprehend what has been said, and yet if he understood their point that he must obey the gods, he would not ask Iokaste or the townspeople what they require; he would ask what it is that the gods require of him, a specification that can only be obtained by inquiring of the god through a designated medium, such as Teiresias. To ask Teiresias would be to concede the point that Iokaste and the Chorus are making: willing compliance is best. The ruler must be willing to work affirmatively with prophecy even when prophecy seems to demand of one that action which one is most loath to perform. [Mi] [Mg] [Md]