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The central protagonist of the play, Oedipus is the exiled king of Thebes, who has come to Athens with his daughter Antigone. Led by a prophecy from Apollo that he would find his final “resting place” (Line 88) there, he arrives blind and in rags, seeking sanctuary and offering his body in return. Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex, staged in 429 BC, narrated the events that led to Oedipus’s exile: He discovered that he had inadvertently killed his father, married his mother, and had four children with her. In Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus argues that he is not to blame for these actions since they resulted from a curse placed on his father, Laius. Further, he claims, he acted in self-defense when he killed Laius, was the passive recipient of Jocasta’s hand in marriage, and could not have known at the time of these events that Laius and Jocasta were his parents.
The play does not resolve the question of Oedipus’s individual responsibility, perhaps because the Greeks saw the individual mortal as inextricably linked with the community and the gods. For the Greeks, no one acts entirely alone because their lives unfold according to fate and the needs of the moment. In the case of Oedipus, the curse placed on his father—that he would be killed by his son—means that Oedipus cannot escape his wrongdoing, but at the same time, his individual qualities—his insistence on finding out the truth, his belief that he could avoid the prophecy—hasten its fulfillment.
In historical time, there was a cult to Oedipus in the sacred precinct of Colonus. Thus, the play dramatizes and educates Athenian residents about the establishment of that cult.
Antigone is one of Oedipus’s two daughters with his mother, Jocasta, making her not only his daughter but also his sister. Oedipus at Colonus takes place before Antigone in narrative time but was staged some 40 years after it. Consequently, Sophocles’s Athenian audience would at least have been aware of his portrayal of her in the earlier play. In Antigone, she emphasizes that she cannot allow her mother’s son to lie unburied, speaking to her understanding of what family members owe to each other and to the gods. In the play, burying her brother is a sacred responsibility that Antigone must fulfill to obey the gods’ laws, which would have been an issue of grave concern for ancient Athenians.
Similarly, in Oedipus at Colonus, she accompanies her father during his wandering and suffering, functioning as his eyes. She also performs burial rites for him, to prepare him for his transition from the moral world to the underworld. The rites were of paramount importance in Greek religion because they ensured that he deceased could transition through Hades. She also urges her brother to give up his doomed quest to overthrow Thebes. At the end of the play, she intends to return to Thebes to attempt to prevent the events that will ultimately occur: The brothers will kill each other. As the audience would have known, Antigone will fail to stop them, but across both plays, she remains consistent in her commitment to honoring the gods and obeying their laws.
Ismene is Antigone’s sister and the daughter and sister of Oedipus. She arrives in Athens after Ismene and Antigone to deliver the oracle who has prophesied that Thebes will attempt to bring Oedipus back to the vicinity of the city, aware of the good fortune associated with possessing his body. She warns her father that Creon is on his way to Athens. At the Chorus’s advisement, Ismene performs the purification rites for Oedipus.
Consistent with her characterization in Antigone, Ismene is portrayed as dedicated to fulfilling her responsibilities to her family and the gods, but also as more fearful than and subordinate to her sister. Though she ultimately supports Antigone’s efforts, she initially submits to Creon’s edict that Polyneices remain unburied. In Oedipus at Colonus, she helps Antigone conduct the rites her father needs done and remains by her sister’s side until the end. But she also focuses on her fear of what will become of them after Oedipus’s death, while Antigone is consistently focused only on her family, showing little fear or concern for herself.
Theseus, the king of Athens, displays proper reverence for the sacred laws of hospitality and protection of suppliants by welcoming Oedipus, protecting him from Creon, and rescuing Ismene and Antigone after Creon’s forces seize them. His behavior marks him as a wise and pious king worthy of receiving the benefits that Oedipus offers him and his land. Oedipus’s insistence that Theseus alone be entrusted with the location of his remains emphasizes Theseus’s preeminence. At the end of the play, he pledges his support to Antigone and Ismene.
In ancient Greek myth, Theseus is perhaps best known for slaying the Minotaur with the help of local princess Ariadne, who he subsequently fled with and (in some versions) abandoned. He later married her sister Phaedra. Other myths describe him kidnapping Helen of Sparta as a child and helping his friend attempt to kidnap Persephone from Hades. In Athenian legend, Theseus was the hero of the city whose labors resembled (and perhaps were modeled after) those of Heracles. Ancient sources describe Theseus as the founder of Athenian democracy.
The Chorus in Oedipus at Colonus is made up of elders of the precinct. The Chorus members are the first to question Oedipus and, upon discovering his identity, initially order him to leave, concerned about pollution. His supplication moves them, however, compelling them to advocate and advise him, as when they instruct him to undergo ritual purification. Somewhat uniquely, they actively intervene in affairs when the Chorus leader detains Creon. They have the final word in the tragedy, declaring an end to lamentation. With Oedipus’s transformation from defiled suppliant to immortalized hero, fate has been fulfilled.
In Athenian tragedies, the Chorus can function as narrator and moral authority. From scholars’ reconstruction of ancient tragedies, it is believed that they chanted, sang, and danced, with drums and aulos providing accompaniment. Oedipus at Colonus, unusually for Athenian tragedy, features numerous sung dialogues between the Chorus and the characters. Second, the Chorus actively intercedes in affairs, in particular when the Chorus leader detains Creon. Typically, the Chorus serves as an extension of the spectators and provides a link between the figures and events onstage and the audience viewing it. To understand the importance of this intermediary role, it is helpful to remember that tragedies were performed in the context of a sacred festival, in which the spectators and performers are summoning and propitiating the gods. Thus the events onstage are not ‘other’ from the audience but are meant to incorporate them in the ritual.
Creon is Jocasta’s brother and Oedipus’s brother-in-law and uncle. He arrives in Colonus intent on bringing Oedipus back to Thebes, and he alternately cajoles and threatens Oedipus to achieve this end. When he first arrives, Creon tells Oedipus and the Chorus that he has come in peace, at the behest of the Theban people, with respect for Athens’s power and sympathy for Oedipus and Antigone’s suffering. When his speech fails to move Oedipus, who accuses him of lying and exiling him, Creon derides Oedipus’s lack of wisdom, then reveals that his forces have seized Ismene and orders his men to take Antigone as well.
The Chorus does not interfere with Antigone, but the leader does prevent Creon from leaving until Theseus arrives. When he does, Creon attempts to manipulate him into giving up Oedipus, reiterating the actions that led to his banishment and blaming Oedipus for having cursed him. But Theseus is unmoved, declaring that Athens honors the gods and their laws and ordering Creon to lead him to Ismene and Antigone. Creon is forced to comply but departs with threats of future discord between their two cities.
Scholars have noted the change in Creon’s characterization from the previous play in event time, Oedipus Rex, in which Creon is portrayed as focused on the good of the city, making his dishonest and aggressive schemes somewhat surprising. On the other hand, Creon’s behavior can also be explained as a reflection of his growing power and determination to maintain it, which is consistent with his characterization in Antigone.
Polyneices is Oedipus’s elder son with Jocasta and thus also his younger brother. Polyneices arrives in Athens seeking his father’s blessing to overthrow Thebes. His younger brother Eteocles has seized power, and Polyneices has raised a foreign army to invade the city and wrest back the throne. But a prophecy has revealed that he cannot succeed without Oedipus’s favor. Oedipus initially refuses to speak to him, until coaxed to respect his son as a suppliant, as he has been respected, by hearing him out. Oedipus complies, but when Polyneices concludes his plea, Oedipus calls him evil and blames him for his exile, contradicting his earlier claim that his sons did not defend him when others banished him. He curses Polyneices, ordering him to leave and to die alongside Eteocles, the outcome that occurs in Antigone.
Polyneices accepts his father’s rebuke relatively passively. Antigone begs him to cancel his planned attack, but Polyneices is unable to do so, even knowing his fate. Eteocles’s disrespect cannot go unanswered, even if it leads to Polyneices’s death. In this regard, Polyneices fulfills the figure of the tragic hero within the play. He is unable to stop the disaster set in motion by events outside of his control because he is unwilling to stop acting in ways that ensure his doom, thus fulfilling the prophecy.
Before departing, Polyneices acknowledges to Antigone that their father and the Erinyes have sealed his fate, and he must go meet it. They will never see each other alive again, but he asks Antigone to conduct his funeral rites, evoking the events of Antigone.
The Attendant arrives at the end of the play to narrate Oedipus’s final moments. This is a stock figure in Athenian tragedy, whose function is to report events that either cannot be depicted on stage or are deemed inappropriate to depict on stage. Regarding the latter, certain mysteries are meant to remain veiled and are thus not depicted on stage. Chief among these is death, which almost always takes place offstage. In this tragedy, since Oedipus’s final moments are concealed from all but Theseus, it would be inappropriate to depict them for all to see. Thus, the Attendant narrates them.
By Sophocles
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