Tiresias' riddle is cunning. The audience know the outline of the story (it's as old as Homer), and they'll pick up on the references to Oedipus' story - he killed his father and married his mother. But Tiresias says the murderer is a Theban (who doesn't realise he is), who is brother and father to his children, and is married to the wife of the man he killed. All this seems to Oedipus either absurd (he knows who his parents are and where they are: Polybus and Merope in Corinth) or malicious. In either case he is too angry to listen properly. Possibly he even leaves the stage before Tiresias has finished. Does Oedipus think that Tiresias may have heard whispers about the prophecy he received at Delphi? Impossible, as Oedipus has told no one until he tells Jocasta shortly; and anyway, he believes he has avoided the curse by coming to Thebes! The Chorus don't think he is guilty. Why not?

• .They can't believe anything bad of the king
• They don't believe in Tiresias' powers
• They believe Apollo will reveal the truth