Iokaste must mean σοι as an ethical dative, meaning something like, “you should know,” or “for all intents and purposes.” But as the god appears to the audience currently to be using double entendre to speak through her, the audience may revisit the meaning of her words, and it may understand the god to say, “when it comes to you” no prophecy has any bearing. Apollo can be heard to point out that Oidipouss considers himself to be an exception to the general rule that applies to all mortals. The viability of prophetic communication is not of particular concern to him, because he exempts himself from its implications. Does he see himself as more than human? Or does he believe that the gods are nothing more than human ideas propped up by (or propping up) human institutions? In either case, since her delivery of the god’s present communication clearly derives from no human art—indeed, it runs directly counter to all the skill at her disposal—it proves that a god such as Apollo can turn even sophisticated human speech against itself, but more particularly, it singles out and makes a special example of those who hold themselves above the implications and obligations that attend upon receipt of a message sent by a god. Indeed, even as the audience recognizes the demonstration of the god’s power to communicate with mortals, it can see that this demonstration escapes Iokaste’s notice and, as she predicts, Oidipous’s. In this regard she would be right that, as far as Oidipous is concerned, no mortal has any part in prophetic speech. The god’s point is that divine speech may be transmitted via any mortal utterance, but it takes an appropriately attuned recipient to hear it. Oidipous, Laios and Iokaste have more than once received prophetic messages from an acknowledged prophet or the institutional Oracle at Delphi. Their problematic responses to these messages demonstrates their improper attunement. Oidipous has not, however, always been improperly attuned; he has been scrupulous in following the Oracle’s instructions to find Laios’ killer. Where he is willing to find and punish a killer, he is unwilling to be one. One might suppose that when Oidipous judges a divine message to be unacceptable, he uses his own judgment as a criterion to dismiss the prophecy as inauthentic. In this way he sets his own judgment above all else, including the god’s judgment. [Gd] [Md] [Mi] [Mpea] [Dnp]