By φρόνησιν the Chorus clearly means “intent,” not “prudence in government and affairs” (LSJ), but in echoing the participle φρονήσας spoken just a few moments before (l. 649) when it was enjoining Oidipous “willingly and prudently” to comply with Iokaste’s request that he honor her brother’s oath, the Chorus may be heard to say it hopes to die if it possesses the very “prudence” it has just advocated, yet precisely this is already underway: the god-sent plague is spreading death and for precisely the reason that the Chorus inadvertently gives: self-contradiction and the moral ambivalence to which it leads. [Mpea] [Mw] [Apa]