Oedipus at Colonus

The setting of the Prologue announces The Significance of Place and Sanctuary within the play. With his daughter Antigone to guide him, Oedipus arrives in the grove of the Eumenides blind, exiled, and in need of protection. In ancient Greek myth and history, the protection of suppliants is a sacred law laid down by Zeus, regardless of what crimes the suppliants may have committed that led to their exile. If they ask for protection, the city is obliged to provide it, as long as the suppliants pose no threat. Traditionally, suppliants would station themselves at a temple or other sacred space, for maintaining physical contact with that sacred space activates the covenant among the suppliants, the city, and the gods.

As suggested by the interaction between Oedipus, Antigone, and the Chorus, the relationship between suppliant and sanctuary is a two-way relationship. As the sanctuary city is obliged to protect the suppliant, the suppliant has a responsibility to respect the values and customs of the sanctuary city. In Oedipus at Colonus, this is reflected in two ways. First, the Stranger and the Chorus both inform Oedipus that he is trespassing on sacred ground. He, however, does not want to move because the law of suppliants dictates that he cannot be harmed as long as he is in contact with sacred ground. After Antigone encourages him to “respect their demands” (Line 171), meaning to fulfill his obligation, he gives way.

As he feared, though, the Chorus then urges him to leave the precinct, fearing the pollution he might bring because of his crimes. He then appeals to them on the grounds that Athens is known for “protect[ing] the lives of persecuted men” (Line 261). For Athenians present at the performance, Oedipus’s plea would be simultaneously a reminder of how they should behave and a tacit salute to the city’s piety. The latter is further suggested by the success of Oedipus’s appeal: The Chorus is moved, and the Chorus leader agrees to take his request to their ruler.

In his prayer to the Eumenides, Oedipus states that he has come to Colonus because of Apollo’s prophecy that this precinct, “where great goddesses | reside” (Lines 90-91), is where his journey will end. Apollo “added that I’d benefit my hosts, | but be the bane of those who banished me” (92-93). This wording of benefiting friends and harming enemies recurs across ancient Greek hero narratives, beginning with Homer. The idea speaks to the dual power of heroes (and gods) to be forces for either harm or help. The Eumenides in whose grove Oedipus seeks sanctuary are a striking example of this. They can be a destructive power in their guise as the Furies (who punish criminals) or a beneficial one in their guise as the “Kindly Ones,” the meaning of their name in ancient Greek.

Apollo’s prophecy thus concerns The Immortalization of the Hero, Oedipus. He will undergo a transformation from a hero of myth to a hero of cult. The hero of myth is the one who was alive during the bygone heroic/mythic age and about whom stories are continually retold. The hero of cult is the one who is no longer alive in the material world but whose immortal power is honored with ritual events. Before he can make this transition, however, Oedipus must undergo purification, which the Chorus recommends and which Ismene carries out on his behalf.

Oedipus praises his daughters for their loyalty: Antigone for remaining by his side during his wandering and Ismene for delivering oracles and information. Ismene warns him that Creon is on his way from Thebes, intent on bringing Oedipus back to the vicinity of his native land. Creon’s insistence on securing Oedipus reflects his future value, for Creon does not intend to bring Oedipus inside the city, and he does not care if Oedipus is dead or alive. The only thing that matters, for Thebes, is that Oedipus be buried within the city’s sphere of control. In life, the pollution he has caused destroys Thebes, but his body may compensate them by becoming a beneficent power.

The Interwoven Nature of Fate and Individual Will emerges in the Prologue when Oedipus attributes his presence in the grove to Apollo’s prophecy. He has not arrived in Colonus at random in the course of his wanderings but was drawn there by the prophecy. At the same time, he chooses to follow the prophecy, and he believes in his heroic status, appealing to the Chorus and later to Theseus on those grounds. He chooses to follow the prophecy in order to fulfill his heroic destiny.

Oedipus’s insistence at the end of the first choral song that he is not to blame for his crimes further demonstrates the interwoven nature of fate and individual will. Oedipus presents himself as a passive receiver of preordained events. He notes that he did Thebes a favor (presumably a reference to him solving the Sphinx’s riddle), and they offered him Jocasta’s hand in marriage. As for murdering his father, Oedipus claims here that he was merely acting in self-defense. Later, he will point out that the gods cursed Laius to be killed by his son, presumably as punishment for his sexual violence against Pelops’s son.

Oedipus emphasizes his passivity in the events that resulted in his banishment, but this is Oedipus’s view, not necessarily that of Sophocles or the ancient Greeks. Oedipus may be expected to present himself in the most positive light possible, especially as he is pleading his case before those who have power over him, but his self-representation is not to be accepted as the full truth. Sophocles emphasizes this by having Oedipus contradict himself across the tragedy. In ancient Greece, ‘hero’ was a title, not a reward for good behavior.

On the one hand, the ancient Greeks believed that immortal power was preeminent. Zeus and Fate had their plans, and mere mortals could do little to alter them. Even within a world defined by fate, however, individual natures and choices drew the attention of the gods and participated in shaping outcomes. Oedipus left Corinth to avoid fulfilling the prophecy that he would kill his father and ended up walking straight into it. Knowing the prophecy, he might have been wary of marrying older, widowed queens, but his desire for power and glory perhaps compelled him not to question his marriage to Jocasta. Further, his determination to learn the identity of Laius’s murderer led to the revelation of his true parentage and the crimes he committed. Thus, Oedipus is neither solely responsible nor entirely passive. His fate is the convergence of his individual will and the will of the gods.