In its prayer for destiny to be “with” it, the Chorus expresses the view that Oidipous has fate against him. The audience has begun to understand, however, that it is not fate or destiny that are against Oidipous, but his own attitudes towards prophecy and the gods with whom prophecy enables mortals to communicate. Oidipous having just agreed with his wife (and mother) that it is a good idea to pay prophecy no heed, his impiety cannot be denied. [P] The Chorus, then, needs to be clear on its own piety and the attitudes it reflects towards gods and prophecy. Early in the play these same Thebans placed their faith in Oidipous as a substitute for Apollo as the one most likely to solve their problems. Somewhat later, refusing to consider that Oidipous might be a source of the town’s pollution, they treated Teiresias with skepticism. Thus, in presently wishing laying claim to a benevolent destiny on the basis of constant piety “in all words and deeds,” the townsfolk seem either to be naively unaware of their own inconstancy or to believe that the divine powers can be easily misled. Rather than basing a claim to divine help on its extremely questionable piety, the town should berate itself for impiety and inconstancy and beg the god’s pardon, for otherwise it can expect “fate” in the form of divine justice to work against it. If such speech by the Theban populace at all resembles the speech to be heard in Athens, the audience might think about its own constancy or hypocrisy in relation to faith in the gods, attitudes towards prophecy, and tendency to blame misfortune on “fate.” [Md] [Aj] [Gt-a] [Mw]