Oedipus at Colonus deserves your attention. It is the end of Sophocles’ Oedipus cycle and his best expression of the redemptive nature of suffering. The play focuses on the death of Oedipus and gives greater insights into familiar characters, like Antigone, Ismene, and Creon. It is fascinating to see how Sophocles wrote about these characters years after first writing Antigone.
Here is what you need to read Oedipus at Colonus well:
Cursed by the Gods: An 18 Question and Answer Guide to Oedipus at Colonus
Video Discussions on Oedipus at Colonus (below)
Be sure to read Antigone and Oedipus the King prior to reading Oedipus at Colonus. The plays were not written as a triad, and Ascend reads them in the order they were written by Sophocles in order to track his intellectual maturation.
Join our reading group and study the great books with us!
To support our mission and get all our resources, become a paid book club member. In addition to the weekly podcast, you’ll get:
Live book club discussions / Q&A with Dcn. Garlick & guest scholars
In-depth reading guides and essays to lead you through the great books
Access to our incredible community of readers
The full archive of members-only content (guides, essays, and podcasts)
Introductory Letter from Dcn. Garlick
Dear Ascend Book Club Members,
Oedipus at Colonus is a beautiful tale. It brings a tremendous amount of meaning to the Oedipus Cycle. Sophocles offers us perennial truths on fate, the agency of man, and the cosmic whole. I greatly enjoyed, as a first time reader, the narrative of Oedipus at Colonus—especially the ending. It is a tremendous zenith to the Oedipus Cycle and one that parallels the Book of Job in its ability to address the question of suffering.
Oedipus at Colonus remains an important text within the Western canon of great books, as it is a beautiful antecedent to how later thinkers, like St. Augustine, will come to understand the world as subject to Divine Providence. Sophocles offers several preliminary considerations on whether the fate that rules the world does so according to justice; and whether man must adopt a certain docility in consideration of such a fate. The balance, however, of man’s agency and fate’s dominion is a perennial question.
I am indebted to Mr. Eli Stone who not only guided me through this work but highly recommended that the podcast cover the Oedipus Cycle. I very much appreciate his insights and all the wisdom he has brought to our conversations.
Amongst all the horrific suffering, Oedipus at Colonus is able to bring a theme of redemption to the story of Oedipus. Like Antigone, he serves as a sign of the gods—a sign of cosmic fate, docility to divine order, and the meaning of suffering.
May we come to understand Sophocles’ lessons and how they invite us to a more ordered existence.
In Christ,
Dcn. Harrison Garlick
Video Discussions on Oedipus at Colonus
Oedipus at Colonus is a bit of a longer drama, but the imagery Sophocles gives you on suffering, redemption, and divine providence is well worth the effort.
Good work! You’ve read the entire Oedipus cycle, a great accomplishment. The next play on the docket is Euripides’ The Bacchae, which is a tremendous shift… one of the most unsettling of all the Greek plays. Comparing Sophocles’ portrayal of the gods to Euripides’ portrayal of the gods is an excellent antecedent to the problem of Plato’s Euthyphro. You’ve joined the great conversation. Keep it up.
You can read the great books with Ascend.
Dcn. Harrison Garlick lives in rural Oklahoma with his wife and five children. He serves as a deacon at Holy Family Cathedral and as Chancellor & General Counsel for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulsa. Follow him on X at Dcn. Garlick or Ascend.