Scene 1
The arrival
The play opens on the road outside Athens. Oedipus, blind, leaning on his daughter Antigone, asks where they are. She does not know the village but recognizes the country. They sit on a stone at the edge of a sacred grove. A local stranger names it — the precinct of the Eumenides, the dread Daughters of Earth and Darkness. Oedipus, hearing the name, knows. Apollo had told him long ago that when he came to a sanctuary of these goddesses, he would have come to the place of his rest. He asks the stranger to fetch the king of Athens. The stranger goes. Oedipus prays, formally, as a suppliant.
Scene 2
The chorus arrives
The chorus of village elders enters, searching for the trespasser. Oedipus comes out of the grove, leaning on Antigone. They are at first only frightened — he is a stranger on holy ground. They press him to say his name and family. He tries to evade. Antigone urges him not to fight fate. He names himself: son of Laius, of the line of Labdacus, the luckless Oedipus. The chorus recoils. They order him out of their borders at once. Antigone pleads. The chorus wavers. They will not decide; they will leave it to the king. As they wait, Antigone sees Ismene riding up from Thebes.
Scene 3
Ismene's news
Ismene arrives, weeping. She has come alone from Thebes, with one loyal servant, to tell her father what is happening there. His sons Eteocles and Polyneices are at war over the throne — Eteocles holding the city, Polyneices marching from Argos with an army. A new oracle has been delivered: whichever land holds Oedipus's body will be blessed in war. Both sons want him back. Creon is on his way to take him. Oedipus listens, then asks the decisive question: have my sons heard this oracle? They have, both of them. He calls down a curse on both of them. Let neither hold the throne; let neither return.
Scene 4
The story told
The chorus instructs Oedipus on the rites of atonement to the Eumenides for trespass on their grove. Blind and weak, he cannot perform them 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. He tries to refuse. They press. He gives in. He gives them the bare facts: the unknowing marriage, the unknowing killing. He insists in the legal language of the play that he is innocent in the eye of the law. The crimes are real; the blame is not his. As they finish, Theseus is announced.
Scene 5
Theseus arrives
Theseus arrives. He recognizes Oedipus on sight, by the marks of the long road, and addresses him without ceremony as son of Laius. He does not ask him to recite his crimes. He asks directly: what is it you want of me? Oedipus offers, in plain language, the gift of his worn-out body — useless to look at, valuable in ways Theseus will see in time. He explains the situation with his sons and Creon. Theseus, without hesitation, grants him refuge with the full authority of the city. The pledge is given without an oath. An oath, Theseus says quietly, would be no more reliable than my word.
Scene 6
The ode to Colonus
Theseus has gone. The chorus, alone with Oedipus and Antigone, sings the play's most famous ode — the song in praise of Colonus, the village just outside Athens. The ode names what the country produces: nightingales hidden in the wine-dark ivy of the grove, narcissus and crocus by the streams, the unfailing springs of Cephisus, the grey-leaved olive that the gods themselves planted, the horses Poseidon trained on these very roads, the ships Athena set on the sea. Sophocles wrote the ode near the end of his life about the village of his birth. As the song ends, Antigone sees Creon and his men approaching.
Scene 7
Creon by force
Creon enters with a small armed company. He addresses the elders politely and Oedipus warmly. He has come, he says, as a kinsman, to bring his old brother-in-law home. Thebes wants him back. Oedipus answers him in the play's most direct speech: the soft words are dressed-up traps. The land of his fathers refused him exile when he wanted it; now they want him at the border to use as a charm; he will not come. Creon drops the disguise. He has already had Ismene seized in the grove; he now has Antigone taken in front of her father. The chorus shouts the alarm. Creon is reaching for Oedipus himself when Theseus comes running.
Scene 8
The rescue
Theseus does not raise his voice. He tells Creon what the laws of xenia require. Creon defends himself — Oedipus is too polluted to be welcomed anywhere; what city would defend him? Theseus does not rise to it. The pollution, if there is one, is a matter for the gods; xenia is a matter for him. He will not let a guest break it in his country. He tells Creon to lead him at once to where the daughters were taken. They go. The chorus stays with Oedipus and sings the rescue they cannot see — the cavalry of Athens cresting the cliffs of Oea, the bridles flashing, the captive girls about to be freed.
Scene 9
Polyneices refused
Theseus comes back with Antigone and Ismene. Oedipus embraces them. Then Theseus reports a second matter: a stranger has taken sanctuary at the altar of Poseidon and is asking to speak with Oedipus. It is Polyneices, his elder son. Oedipus does not want to hear him. Antigone pleads. Oedipus relents. Polyneices enters in tears, explains his case, and asks his father's blessing on the campaign against Thebes. Oedipus answers with the play's most terrible speech: I curse you both. Polyneices and his brother will fall by each other's hands. Polyneices accepts the curse and goes back to the war. Antigone begs him to turn around. He will not.
Scene 10
The thunder
Polyneices has gone. The chorus, in the silence after his departure, 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. He recognizes it. The gods are calling him. The thunder is the appointed sign. He turns to his daughters and asks for Theseus to be brought at once. The chorus prays for the land to be spared. Oedipus is calm in the middle of the storm. He has no time left to waste; he has a promise to keep. The play has begun to telegraph what is coming.
Scene 11
The death
Theseus arrives. Oedipus, in the firmest voice he has used in the play, tells him the gods are calling him. He has a treasure to give the city — a thing time cannot corrupt. The location must be a secret; the secret will defend Athens better than any wall. He embraces his daughters and tells them they will not see him again. Then, blind as he is, he walks unaided into the grove. Only Theseus is allowed to follow further. A messenger reports the rest. The earth had opened gently and taken him in. No struggle. No cry. The chorus closes the play: wail no more; let sorrow rest; all is ordered for the best.