Line #23 Theatre/OedipusAtColonus


1	!!As the play is OlderThanFeudalism, all spoilers on this page are [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff unmarked]].
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12	The second play sequentially of Creator/{{Sophocles}}' Theban tetralogy but written last and produced at the Dionysia posthumously.
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14	The play picks up years after the events of ''Theatre/OedipusTheKing'', with the now blind and beggarly Oedipus and his daughter Antigone arriving at Colonus. They stop to rest in a sacred grove and are confronted by citizens concerned for the sanctity of the place and fearful of Oedipus' curse. Oedipus knows this as a sign of his imminent death and asks for an audience with Theseus, the king of Athens.
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16	Ismene, Oedipus' other daughter, arrives bearing news of the succession crisis in Thebes, where their younger brother Eteocles has ousted the older Polyneices, who intends to wage civil war as a result. Oedipus' favour is central to the success of the war, but in bitterness he chooses to give his favour to the people of Colonus rather than his sons. Theseus gratefully accepts his blessing and declares him a citizen of Athens.
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18	Creon appears to force Oedipus to go to Thebes by [[IHaveYourWife abducting Antigone and Ismene]] but Theseus intervenes. Polyneices also appears to request Oedipus' aid, but upon rejection makes Antigone [[Theatre/{{Antigone}} promise to bury him]], knowing he will die. After his exit a [[DramaticThunder thunderstorm]] appears and Oedipus recognizes the moment of his death, bids farewell to his daughters and goes off with Theseus in secret. Despite their grief Antigone and Ismene choose to return to Thebes to try and stop their brother's rebellion.
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21	!!This play contains examples of:
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23	* ActionFilmQuietDramaScene: Inverted actually. In a very static play the abduction of Oedipus' daughters is a surprising moment of frantic action amidst the calm.
24	* AnachronicOrder: This was the second play chronologically, but this was from Sophocles' (apparently incomplete) swan song and premiered, under his grandson Sophocles the Younger's direction, a few years after the poet's death.
25	* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Oedipus just... disappears at the end.
26	%%* BigScrewedUpFamily: At the centre of the entire tetralogy.
27	* BlindSeer: Oedipus has become one, and personally brings down a curse on his own sons.
28	%%* {{Determinator}}: Oedipus still got it.
29	* DoomedByCanon: Though taken from myth and so obviously a ForegoneConclusion, there's a specific feeling of DoomedByCanon that comes at the end of this play when Antigone and Ismene resolve to go to Thebes to try and stop their brothers. Though ''Theatre/{{Antigone}}'' is a sequel, Creator/{{Sophocles}} wrote it over thirty years before ''Oedipus at Colonus''.
30	* DownerEnding: Eteocles and Polyneices are going to war against each other, and we know from other sources that each slew the other.
31	%%* DramaticThunder
32	%%* HeroOfAnotherStory: Theseus.
33	* IHaveYourWife: Creon kidnaps Oedipus' daughters (his own nieces).
34	%%* {{I Have No Son}}s: Although Antigone is so great that [[DoubleStandard she is almost a substitute for one]].
35	%%* LibationForTheDead
36	* LocalReference: Sophocles sets this play in his hometown of Colonus.
37	* TheMusical: Made into a gospel musical in the 1980s, ''The Gospel at Colonus''.
38	* OlderAndWiser: Though still the main character, Oedipus is greatly changed from the previous play.
39	* PropheciesAreAlwaysRight: Oedipus knows this better than anyone, and accepts his death when he recognizes the prophesized signs.
40	* ThanatosGambit: Oedipus makes sure that Thebes will not benefit from his death, and ensures the future success of Athens.
41	%%* {{Tragedy}}
42	* TragicHero: Oedipus is one that has survived from his [[Theatre/OedipusTheKing tragic fall]] and since gained some measure of dignity back through the blessing his bones will bring to Athens.

Context Theatre / OedipusAtColonus