The final clause in this sentence describes the miscreant as “touching the untouchable.” Embracing Iokaste in their marriage bed, Oidipous has literally been laying hands on the mother’s body whose sexual use by a son is utterly forbidden. In testing the application of these words to Athens, however, the audience may in light of the parallel with Oidipous see that the city has similarly been laying hands on her former allies and clients in ways that are, due to the nature of the relationships among them, improper even to the point of obscenity. The laying of hands on that which must be left untouched may also resonate with Athenian interference some twenty years back in its intervention with the Oracle at Delphi. The fact that Athens has chosen not to see herself in this light should at this point in the play be of little comfort to an Athenian audience, firstly because Oidipous also fails, apparently until the god brutally rubs his nose in it, to recognize his culpability, and secondly because Athens must already be aware that this is precisely the critical light in which others—rivals, former clients, and neighbors such as Thebes—see and judge Athens. To the growing list of its critics Athens must now add the Oracle at Delphi and its patron, Apollo. [P] [Mw] [Mj] [Aj] [Apa]