abstract illustration of the Oedipus story depicting the Sphynx, Jocasta, and Oedipus

The Oedipus Trilogy

by Sophocles

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Oedipus at Colonus Lines 525 – 1,192 Questions and Answers

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Study Questions
1. What ceremony does the Leader of the Chorus explain to Oedipus?

2. How does Oedipus react when the Leader finishes explaining the ceremony?

3. What do Ismene and Antigone say after their father speaks to the Leader about the ceremony?

4. Why does the Chorus want Oedipus to recite the details of his life?

5. Why does Oedipus yield to the curiosity of the Chorus when the men press him for the details of his life?

6. Why does Theseus offer protection and the full rights of citizenship to Oedipus?

7. What gift does Oedipus promise to Theseus?

8. Why is Creon searching for Oedipus?

9. Why does Creon seize Ismene and Antigone?

10. Why will Creon be Theseus’ prisoner until the women are returned?

Answers
1. The Leader of the Chorus explains to Oedipus how to make an offering to the Eumenides, the goddesses whose sacred grove has been trod upon.

2. When the Leader finishes explaining the ceremony, Oedipus says that he is too old and weak to perform the rituals. He asks Ismene and Antigone if one of them could take his place.

3. Ismene says that she will gather what the goddesses require and she will perform the rites. She tells Antigone to stay and watch over their father, and Antigone makes no protest.

4. The Chorus wants Oedipus to recite the details of his life for the prurient thrill of hearing the story, which everyone already knows, from the lips of the man who was one of its main characters.

5. Oedipus wants to tell them that he believes he is fundamentally innocent, because the true nature of his crimes was hidden from him.

6. Theseus offer protection and the full rights of citizenship to Oedipus because Athens prides itself on being a kingdom where compassion and justice are honored, because he has pity for a blind, old man who was once a mighty king and because it is right and proper to offer charity to people needing help.

7. Oedipus promises Theseus that if he is allowed to die and be buried in Athens, his tomb will destroy any of the kingdom’s enemies who trod on it, forever.

8. Creon wants to talk his former brother-in-law, Oedipus, into coming back to Thebes so that he cannot become a deadly trap for Theban soldiers.

9. Creon seizes Ismene and Antigone because he believes that kidnapping the women will intimidate Oedipus into coming back to Thebes.

10. Theseus vows that Creon will be his prisoner until the women are returned because the kidnapping was a crime and because Theseus takes it personally as an insult to him and to his kingdom.

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