Shortly after Creon leaves, Oedipus' other son, Polynices, arrives to beg his father's support in his war to regain the Theban throne from his brother and Creon. Theseus pledges his help, and when Creon appears threatening war and holding the daughters hostage for Oedipus' return, the Athenian king drives Creon off and frees the daughters. Oedipus refuses to return, and when Theseus arrives, Oedipus promises him a great blessing for the city if he is allowed to stay, die, and be buried at Colonus. Meanwhile, Oedipus' other daughter, Ismene, arrives from Thebes with the news that Creon and Eteocles, Oedipus' son, want Oedipus to return to Thebes in order to secure his blessing and avoid a harsh fate foretold by the oracle. This discovery causes Oedipus to demand that Theseus, king of Athens, be brought to him. Oedipus and Antigone, his daughter and guide, learn they have reached Colonus, a city near Athens, and are standing on ground sacred to the Eumenides (another name for the Furies). During the course of the play, Oedipus undergoes a transformation from an abject beggar, banished from his city because of his sins, into a figure of immense power, capable of extending (or withholding) divine blessings.Īs the play opens, Oedipus appears as a blind beggar, banished from Thebes. In Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles dramatizes the end of the tragic hero's life and his mythic significance for Athens. Ritual and Transcendence in the Oedipus Trilogy.The Power of Fate in the Oedipus Trilogy.Summary and Analysis: Oedipus at Colonus.Speak whatever seems timely to you, for the man is here. Setting off and coming toward us? Antigone But I think there is no need-I see a man nearby. Well, shall I go and learn what the spot is called? Oedipus OedipusĬan you tell me, now, where we have arrived? Antigone Athens I know, but not this place. If time can teach, I need not learn that.

You have travelled a long way for an old man. Ring the city, to judge by sight, are far off and this place is sacred, to judge from its appearance: laurel, olive, and vine grow thick-set and a feathered crowd of nightingales makes music within. Antigoneįather, toil-worn Oedipus, the towers that We have come to learn as foreigners from the townsmen, and to bring to completion whatever we hear. My child, if you see any resting-place,Įither on profane ground or by groves of the gods, stop me and set me down, so that we may inquire where we are. For patience is the lesson of suffering, and of the long years upon me, and lastly of a noble mind. Little do I crave, and obtain still less than that little, and with that I am content. Child of a blind old man, Antigone, to what region have we come, or to what city of men? Who will entertain the wandering Oedipus today with scanty gifts?

Oedipus at colonus