In response to her husband’s declaration of respect for her, Iokaste encourages him to reveal the cause of the present strife, even if it means bringing a charge (ἐγκαλῶν), against her brother Kreon. The audience knows that this charge could only be based on the incorrect inference that Kreon obtained Teiresias’s collusion in his attempt to seize power, which would be effected through Oidipous’s banishment or death. The cause of the dispute, however, is in fact Oidipous himself; it is he who must be the object of any indictment. Oidipous should indict himself for disrespecting Teiresias and misjudging Kreon. But it must also be clear that, working backwards from the intense effort that Apollo is mounting to make Oidipous suffer, Oidipous stands not only indicted but convicted of crimes that the audience has yet to understand, for surely he cannot be punished for murder and incest that he does not realize he has committed. Nor can the divine project to bring him to justice spring from his skepticism about the seer’s capacity to speak for the god and his suspicion that the seer’s services are for sale, for these offenses are fresh. Laios’ killing and Oidipous’s disregard for the seer do, however, have something in common: they show a disdain for prophecy as a medium for communication with Apollo. Thus, they betray an untoward dismissal of the possibility for any meaningful relationship with Apollo himself. [Gd] [P] [Mpea] [Md]