Iokaste seems strangely gratified to think that Laios died at the hands of highwaymen. She even more shockingly views the brutal murder of her own infant as a victory. These egregious emotions stem from an intense animus to establish the impotence of prophecy and the god in whose name it is delivered. Her orientation towards god and prophecy manifests a deformation of character, for surely satisfaction taken in the victory over god and prophecy should not outweigh pain and regret for the violent deaths of husband and infant son, and yet Athens must see itself in her disfigured character, for to gain a victory over the prophecy that Sparta will win the war, the city is willing to subject its own husbands and sons to violent death through warfare. We may surmise that Athens may even have been willing to subject every person within the city to a horrible death by plague rather than send to Delphi to seek a remedy. As the god saw to the failure of Laios’, Iokaste’s, and Oidipous’s efforts to outrun prophecy, so he can be expected to subject Athens to a similar failure. Athenians will die of plague or be killed in battle, Athens will lose the war to Sparta, and Athenian suffering will thereby prove the strength and value of the prophetic institution at Delphi. [Mip] [Apa] [Aj] [Mw] [Gt-a] [Gm]