Iokaste has railed at prophecies before (ll. 720-4), but at that point she was careful to make a distinction between prophets and the god. Now as she gloats over her triumph, this distinction disappears, but because she directs her taunt to “divine prophecies,” as if these were able to hear and respond to her, she provokes them to reveal themselves, but since prophecies only do so through their realization, this is in fact a challenge to the god to demonstrate his power. Her open challenge indicates that she feels even more certain now that that can never happen. Her present heightened exultation suggests, however, that she has felt some slight qualms about her earlier rejection of prophecy. It was not based on complete certainty. The audience’s knowledge that she is even now interpreting the facts incorrectly only points up the fact that in such matters absolute certainty is never possible, and claims to certitude must be either disingenuous or deluded. This could not be more poignantly demonstrated than by Iokaste’s present state of mind, for her outburst only reveals the degree of her suppressed anxiety relating to her husband and the possible guilt and regret in regard to the death of her infant son. The audience, however, knows her relief to be baseless, and to the extent that it recognizes in Iokaste its own skepticism and related disquiet, it should weigh the possibility that the god’s prophecies bearing on Athens may likewise still prove themselves accurate, and in so doing manifest the execution of divine punishment in just retribution for the city’s impiety. [Gt-a] [Mpea] [Aj] [P]