Where just a moment ago Iokaste was careful to separate Apollo from his servants (l. 712) she now holds the god responsible for failing to fulfill the prophecies issued in his name. Either Iokaste was in the first instance prevaricating in order to give the impression that she did not mean to impugn the god’s integrity or she holds the god responsible for prophecies issued in his name even by charlatans, although she called the latter “servants” or “underlings,” which raises the very real problem of discriminating between genuine and false intermediaries. [Mpei] [P] [Mip]