Oedipus at Colonus — chapter by chapter
All eleven scenes summarized — one day, from arrival to disappearance.
The play covers a single day, from morning in the grove to a thunderstorm at evening. Scenes 1–2 are the arrival: the blind exile and his daughter recognized for who they are, and the village's first instinct to drive them out. Scenes 3–6 are the bargain with Athens: Ismene's news from Thebes, the oracle, Theseus's grant of sanctuary, the central ode in praise of Colonus. Scenes 7–9 are the two visitors from outside: Creon by force, Polyneices in supplication, both refused. Scenes 10–11 are the end — the thunder, the walk into the grove, the reported death.
Scenes 1–2 · Arrival
The blind exile reaches the grove and is recognized.
Scene 1
The play opens on a road outside Athens, in the morning. The blind exile and his daughter Antigone sit at the edge of a wooded grove. A local stranger arrives and names the goddesses whose precinct it is — the Eumenides — and Oedipus quietly recognizes the prophecy he has carried for twenty years. Apollo had told him long ago that when he reached a grove of these goddesses, he would have come to the place of his rest. He asks the stranger to summon the king of Athens.
Appears: Oedipus · Antigone
Scene 2
The chorus of village elders enters, searching for the trespasser. They guide Oedipus to a safe ledge of rock and then press him for his name and family. When he gives it — son of Laius, the luckless Oedipus — they recoil and order him out of their borders at once. Antigone, young, with no claim on them, pleads for her father. The chorus is moved but afraid; they will not decide a thing like this themselves and will wait for Theseus. As they wait, Ismene rides up from Thebes.
Appears: Oedipus · Antigone · Chorus of Elders
Scenes 3–6 · The bargain with Athens
News from Thebes, the oracle, Theseus, the great ode.
Scene 3
Ismene rides up alone from Thebes with the news that has made the war urgent. A new oracle from Delphi has declared that whichever land holds Oedipus's body will be blessed. His sons Eteocles and Polyneices, who had been content to let Creon rule, are now at war over the Theban throne, and both of them want their father back not for his sake but for his bones. Creon is on his way to take him. Oedipus, hearing what his sons have known and done nothing about, calls down a curse on both of them.
Appears: Oedipus · Antigone · Ismene · Chorus of Elders
Scene 4
The chorus instructs Oedipus, in precise ritualistic detail, on how to atone for trespassing the grove of the Eumenides. Blind and weak, he cannot perform the rites himself; Ismene goes to the spring beyond the grove on his behalf. While they wait, the chorus presses him for the story they have heard from far away; reluctantly, he gives the legal version, insisting on intent — he killed in self-defense, he married in ignorance, the blame is not his to carry. As they finish, Theseus is announced.
Appears: Oedipus · Antigone · Ismene · Chorus of Elders
Scene 5
Theseus arrives. He recognizes Oedipus on sight by the marks of the long road and hears him out without making him recite his crimes. Oedipus offers, in plain language, the gift of his worn-out body: useless to look at, valuable in ways the king will see in time. Theseus, without hesitation, grants him sanctuary on the authority of Athens itself. Oedipus tries to extract an oath as security; Theseus says his word is no less reliable than an oath, and the play believes him. He goes to make the arrangements.
Appears: Oedipus · Theseus · Chorus of Elders
Scene 6
Theseus has gone. The chorus, alone with Oedipus and Antigone, sings the play's most famous ode — the song in praise of Colonus that Sophocles wrote near the end of his life about the village of his birth, while Athens was losing the Peloponnesian War. The ode names the things of the place: nightingales hidden in the wine-dark ivy, narcissi at dawn, the unfailing springs of the Cephisus, the grey-leaved olive that the gods themselves planted, the horses Poseidon trained, the ships Athena set on the sea. As it ends, Creon comes up the road.
Appears: Antigone · Chorus of Elders · Oedipus
Scenes 7–9 · The visitors
Creon by force; Polyneices in supplication. Both refused.
Scene 7
Creon enters with a small armed company and a speech of soft persuasion: he has come, as a kinsman, to bring his old brother-in-law home to Thebes. Oedipus, unmoved, names what Creon is doing — Thebes wants his bones at the border, not his foot across it — and refuses. Creon drops the disguise. He has already had Ismene seized in the grove; he now has Antigone taken in front of her father. Oedipus calls down a curse on him and his line. Creon is reaching for Oedipus himself when Theseus comes running.
Appears: Creon · Oedipus · Antigone · Chorus of Elders · Theseus
Scene 8
Theseus, briefly and without raising his voice, tells Creon what the laws of xenia require. Creon defends himself — Oedipus is the most polluted man in Greek myth; what city would defend him? Theseus refuses to debate it. The pollution is a matter for the gods; xenia is a matter for him. He will not let a guest break Athenian custom in his country. He rides out with Creon to find the abducted daughters. The chorus stays with Oedipus and sings the rescue they cannot see — the cavalry of Athens cresting the cliffs of Oea.
Appears: Theseus · Creon · Oedipus · Chorus of Elders
Scene 9
Theseus returns with Antigone and Ismene; Oedipus embraces them. Then a second suppliant arrives: Polyneices, his elder son, has taken sanctuary at the altar of Poseidon and is asking for one word with his father. Oedipus does not want to hear him; Antigone pleads; Oedipus relents. Polyneices comes in tears, asking his father's blessing on the war he is about to wage on Thebes. Oedipus answers with the play's most terrible speech and curses both his sons — they will fall by each other's hands. Polyneices accepts the curse and goes back to the army.
Appears: Theseus · Antigone · Ismene · Oedipus · Polyneices
Scenes 10–11 · The end
Thunder, the walk into the grove, the reported death.
Scene 10
Polyneices is gone. The chorus is meditating on the cost of long life when the sky breaks. Thunder rolls across the field; lightning flashes. The chorus is afraid; Oedipus is not. The thunder is the sign Apollo had told him long ago to expect — when it came, he would have come to the place of his rest. He calls his daughters to him, calmly, and asks for Theseus to be brought at once. He has a promise to keep. The end is at hand. It will not be on stage; it will be reported.
Appears: Oedipus · Antigone · Ismene · Chorus of Elders
Scene 11
Theseus arrives. Oedipus tells him the gods are calling him; he has a treasure to give the city. He embraces his daughters, tells them they will not see him again, and walks unaided into the grove. Only Theseus is allowed to follow further. A messenger reports the rest: the earth opened gently and took him in, without violence, without a cry. The girls return; Theseus refuses to show them the place. Antigone resolves to go back to Thebes to try to stop her brothers. The chorus closes the play: wail no more; let sorrow rest.
Appears: Theseus · Oedipus · Antigone · Ismene · Chorus of Elders
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