Oedipus at Colonus

Before you read

Colonus, near Athens

Oedipus at Colonus was the last play Sophocles wrote. He died around 406 BCE, aged about ninety, and his grandson put the play on stage in 401 BCE. It is set at Colonus, the village near Athens where Sophocles himself was born, in a grove sacred to the Eumenides, the goddesses of vengeance, whom the Athenians called “the Kindly Ones” to keep them kind.

Old, blind and homeless, Oedipus arrives with his daughter Antigone. The people of Colonus, horrified by his name, want him gone. Oedipus defends himself: he killed Laius in self-defence, and he married Jocasta without knowing who she was; he acted in ignorance. Theseus, the wise king of Athens, takes him under his protection. His other daughter, Ismene, brings news: an oracle has said that the land where Oedipus is buried will be blessed and protected. Suddenly everyone wants him. Creon comes from Thebes to take him back by force and seizes his daughters, but Theseus rescues them. Then Oedipus’s son Polynices comes to ask for his blessing in a war against his brother Eteocles, and Oedipus, still bitter that his sons let him be driven out, curses them both.

At last there is thunder: the sign from the gods. The blind old man, who has needed a guide for years, rises and leads the way himself, guiding Theseus to a secret place in the grove. There Oedipus disappears. A messenger says that he died without pain, in a way no one could explain, and only Theseus knows where his grave is. The man who was driven out of Thebes as a curse becomes a blessing for Athens.

Mercy sees the person behind the deed.

The story

Retold for this lesson from Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus (performed 401 BCE).

Down a dusty road, an old blind beggar came slowly, leaning on the arm of a young woman. His clothes were rags, and his face was lined with suffering. “Where are we, Antigone?” he asked. “In a grove, father,” she said, “full of laurel, olive and vines, and nightingales are singing. I think it is a holy place.” The old man sat down gratefully on a rock to rest.

A man of the village came running. “Get up! You must not sit there! This grove belongs to the Eumenides, the terrible goddesses!” And when the villagers learned who the stranger was, Oedipus, the man who had killed his father and married his mother, they were horrified. “Leave our land!” they cried. “You will bring a curse on us all!” Oedipus stood up. “Would you drive me out for my name?” he said. “I killed a man who attacked me, not knowing he was my father. I married a queen, not knowing she was my mother. I suffered those deeds more than I did them. Let your king decide.”

Theseus, the king of Athens, came and listened. He looked at the old man with pity, not disgust. “I too was a stranger once,” he said, “and I know that I am only a man, and have no more power over tomorrow than you. You may stay, and Athens will protect you.” And when Creon came from Thebes with soldiers, and seized Antigone and her sister Ismene to force Oedipus to return, Theseus sent his horsemen after them and brought the girls back safely.

Then thunder rolled across the sky, again and again. Oedipus raised his head. “That is the sign,” he said. “My time has come.” And the blind man, who for years had needed his daughter to guide every step, stood up and walked ahead, leading Theseus and his daughters through the grove without help, as if he could see. He said goodbye to his daughters, and they wept. Then he went on alone with Theseus to a secret place. When the others looked back a little later, Oedipus was gone, and Theseus was standing alone with his hand over his eyes, as if he had seen something too great to look at. No one ever learned how Oedipus died, or where he lies. But the old stories say that his grave protects Athens to this day.

Talk and write

Discussion and writing

The hearing. In groups, hold a hearing at Colonus: should Oedipus be allowed to stay? Use the language of responsibility and intention.

Discuss. 1. Is a person guilty of something they did without knowing? 2. Why does the play turn the cursed man into a blessing? 3. How should a country treat strangers who ask for refuge?

Write (150–180 words). A letter to Theseus. Write Antigone’s letter asking the king of Athens to protect her father, using polite requests and the language of intention.