Creon by force

Creon enters at the head of a small company of armed men. His tone is gentle. He addresses the elders of Colonus respectfully and turns to Oedipus as a brother-in-law speaking to family. He has come, he says, sent by the people of Thebes, to bring his old kinsman home. Oedipus is suffering here, in rags, in a foreign land; surely he wants to come home. Creon's voice is the voice he has used in Antigone — soft, reasonable, plausible to anyone who does not know him.

Oedipus knows him. The reply is the most direct speech in the play. Brazen-faced man, he says. Your subtle tongue would twist every plea of right to your own advantage. He names what Creon is doing. Years ago, when Oedipus longed for exile, Thebes refused it; now, when his bones are valuable, Thebes wants him at the border. Creon will plant him near the Theban land but will not let his foot cross it; pollution still frightens them too much for that. Oedipus refuses. He tells Creon to leave.

Creon drops the disguise. He has already had Ismene seized in the grove, while she was at the rite of atonement. He now signals his men to take Antigone. They do — in front of her father, while she calls his name. The chorus shouts and rallies; the call goes up to the village. Creon, undeterred, reaches for Oedipus himself, taunting — these crutches will not hold you up much longer, old man. Oedipus, in fury, calls down a curse on him and his line. May the great Sun grant Creon, in his old age, the same blindness he now bears. As Creon is dragging him forward, Theseus comes running. The whole confrontation, in five minutes, has shown what Creon is.