Given not only the accuracy of Teiresias’s charge regarding the regicide but also Teiresias’s obvious knowledge of even more terrible facts that surely must also soon be brought to light (both known to the audience from myth), the audience will find Iokaste’s suggestion that her husband put aside his concerns to be altogether inappropriate. Rather than putting himself at ease, Oidipous should take the seer’s charge far more seriously. Indeed, he should be more sensitive to the additional mysteries at which the seer only darkly hinted. Iokaste’s advice cannot, then, be helpful; it will only protract the painful and unavoidable process of discovery. It is surely better to learn the truth as quickly as possible so that one may stop unwittingly committing atrocious deeds, stop unwittingly being part of improper relationships, and so stop being the focus of the gods’ negative attention. That he has never once considered the possibility of truth in the seer’s statements suggests that Oidipous does not regard himself as even inadvertently having done wrong: he has set himself aside. This idea is supported by Iokaste’s language, for where by ἀφεὶς σεαυτὸν she must mean “having put yourself at ease,” her words can also be taken to mean “having acquittted yourself.” Describing Oidipous’s actual situation perfectly, this double entendre suggests that the god is again at pains to offer a helpful insight. Indeed, as the audience is made aware of the false assumption in which Oidipous and Iokaste seem to share, the audience might infer that the god has a message for anyone who, having set aside consideration of their own possible culpability, sees conspiracy in the charges brought against them, especially when these charges are delivered by a prophet. How the situation arises in which one acquits oneself of charges without considering them is a new mystery that needs to be explored, for if Athens’ response to prophecy is comparable to Oidipous’s, it, like him, may be on the brink of a terrible discovery towards which the god seems already to be working. From this perspective, advice not to worry about charges spoken by a prophet can only intensify the consequences for any injustice already committed. The audience should be concerned, then, to develop an understanding of why people refuse to consider their own culpability for misdeeds named by prophecy. It needs to develop a psychology. A beginning point for this development is that such individuals seem to be unaware of their involvement in the commission of some crime. [Gd] [Mi] [Mpea]