Kreon’s criticism prompts Oidipous to theaten him, promising that he will not get away without paying the penalty for “doing a kinsman ill.” Not only is the audience aware that Kreon is not doing his kinsman Oidipous any ill, it is also aware that this kinship is itself a sign of pollution and that Oidipous is about to be made to pay the penalty for doing just this—for killing his father, a crime for which Oidipous seems now to affirm the need for a penalty to be paid. From the audience’s present perspective, the killing of Laios seems a distant and unclear, though terribly unfortunate, transgression, while the hostility and threats he is expressing towards Kreon mark a clear and significant transgression. It is for the transgression against kinsman Kreon that the audience can the more clearly approve the punitive action apparently being executed by Apollo. [Mpei] [Apa] [Aj]