Speaking once more (cf. l. 885) to the idea that the unknown miscreant must be punished “for not coming by advantage justly” (εἰ μὴ τὸ κέρδος κερδανεῖ δικαίως) seems again to apply to Athens, where receipt of tribute payments has increasingly come to depend upon extortion. [Mj] This was clearly the reason why, by the start of the war, some of Athens’ former clients had already defected to the Peloponnesian League and others were awaiting the opportunity to follow suit. Indeed, Sparta and her allies were provoked to war precisely by their perception that Athenian policy was unjust. That the words of the Chorus so neatly express contemporary attitudes towards Athens could only have confirmed and strengthened the Athenian audience’s awareness that it was viewed and judged in the same light in which Apollo appears to be viewing and judging Oidipous, although he is not guilty of extortion.[Aj] If anything, Athens is more deserving than Oidipous of divine sanction. That Athens is being made to suffer plague suggests, however, that its fault, like Thebes’, derives from pollution, which stems from inconsistency in its attitudes, beliefs, and actions towards its gods and the institutions they sponsor. [Gt-a] [P] [Mw]