Oedipus at Colonus
The second play sequentially of Sophocles' Theban tetralogy but written last and produced at the Dionysia posthumously, taking place years after the events of Oedipus Rex.
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Tropes used in Oedipus at Colonus include:
- Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Inverted actually. In a very static play the abduction of Oedipus' daughters is a suprising moment of frantic action amidst the calm.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Oedipus just... disappears at the end.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Theseus.
- Big Screwed-Up Family: At the centre of the entire tetralogy.
- Blind Seer: Oedipus has become one, and personally brings down a curse on his own sons.
- Determinator: The man's still got it.
- Doomed by Canon: Though taken from myth and so obviously a Foregone Conclusion, there's a specific feeling of Doomed by Canon that comes at the end of this play when Antigone and Ismene resolve to go to Thebes to try and stop their brothers. Though Antigone is a sequel, Sophocles wrote it over thirty years before Oedipus at Colonus.
- Downer Ending
- Dramatic Thunder
- I Have Your Wife: Creon kidnaps Oedipus' daughters (his own nieces).
- I Have No Sons: Although Antigone is so great she's almost a substitute for one.
- Libation for the Dead
- Local Reference- Sophocles sets this play in his hometown of Colonus.
- Older and Wiser: Though still the main character, Oedipus is greatly changed from the previous play.
- Prophecies Are Always Right: Oedipus knows this better than anyone, and accepts his death when he recognizes the prophesized signs.
- Thanatos Gambit: Oedipus makes sure that Thebes will not benefit from his death, and ensures the future success of Athens.
- Tragedy
- Tragic Hero: Oedipus is one that has survived from his tragic fall and since gained some measure of dignity back through the blessing his bones will bring to Athens.