Naming Apollo, recognizing him as the intended recipient of the people’s incense and wool-wrapped withies, the speaker makes it clear that he does not mistake himself for this god, yet he gives not the slightest indication that his own presence might constitute an intrusion into sacred space, that it might be an impious infringement on divine prerogatives to place himself at the focal point of a ritual act meant to invoke the god. The audience might therefore find him at once daring and insensitive, caring and impious. The tension between these conflicting judgments puts the audience on the horns of a dilemma, for if it embraces his willingness to assume chief responsibility for managing the crisis, it implicitly turns its own back on piety. If, on the other hand, it condemns his impiety, it acknowledges its own insufficiency to handle the crisis. [P] [Mp]