Hearing Oidipous for the third time address his people as children (παῖδες) the audience may review and judge again his presumption of paternalistic intimacy with his subjects, whom Oidipous will seem now, still standing in the space marked off for Apollo’s appearance, even more clearly to contaminate the city, not only with his legendary incest and parricide, but with his ignorance and impious assumptions. What the audience supposes now that it did not when the play began is the god’s presence and vibrant power, compared to which even the greatest mortal power seems childlike. In that respect, it might perhaps be appropriate to term fellow mortals “children,” but only if he included himself in that characterization. Since he does not, the word can meaningfully be assigned only to Apollo, who might again be sensed, as he was at the play’s opening, to be using Oidipous as a mouthpiece. So, while Oidipous appears to wish to communicate love, concern, and reassurance, the audience will judge his endearment to be arrogant, impious, and even disgusting, for it suggests that the plague on fertility stems from an incestuous intimacy between ruler and ruled. [Gd] [Apcmu] [Mei] [P] [Md]