Three aspects of this declaration prompt an exploration for additional meanings: the verb in the present tense (“I release”), the focus on piercings rather than bindings, and the shift in referring to the infant from third to second person. Where the Corinthian seems to explain that he unyoked the infant’s ankles by untying the thong, he may be heard rather to say something else, such as: “I am solving [the mystery] respecting your having pierced ankles.” Seeing a steady stream of signs that Apollo is present and continually at work to bring Oidipous to discover the truth about himself, the audience may understand him to be the “I” behind this speech and the action it describes. If so, he would seem to be calling attention to his orchestration of a great and punishing work that long since undid Laios and very soon will “undo” (another interpretation of λύω) Oidipous. At the same time, his words recall the fact that he saved the infant and enabled (by providing a clue to solution to the Sphinx’s riddle) Oidipous to save Thebes. Since that event led to marriage to Iokaste, the heels that signify the god’s salvation of the infant also participate in destruction of the adult. This turnabout should not be taken as a sign of arbitrariness or instability on the god’s part; it might rather reflect Apollo’s response to adult Oidipous’s failure properly to disambiguate the prophecy instructing him to take his father’s life. Since he resisted in a fashion very similar to his father’s disobedience, it became necessary for him, too, to be made to pay a stiff penalty. The focus on the scars as signs of some malevolent intent suggests a further thing; Oidipous should have supposed all along that he had been saved from something. He could have interpreted the scars, not as a cause for shame or embarrassment, but as signs of salvation by a benevolent deity. He might, in that case, rather than accusing Apollo of dishonoring him, have gone to the interview at Delphi confident in the knowledge that the gods had blessed his life. The audience might similarly ascribe the Greeks’ miraculous victory over the Persians at Marathon to divine benevolence. Rather than ignoring or attempting to defeat a Delphic prophecy, Athens should trust in Apollo’s positive disposition. If, however, Athens fails to uphold the special relationship between itself and its gods, it can expect deliverance to turn into destruction. [Mpea] [Apa] [Mipd] [Ad] [Gt-a] [P] [Mw]