The Choral Ode in Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus: Part 1

Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus is about a man who has been ravaged by fate and finally comes to a place where he finds peace and serenity and can die freed from his burdens and cares. Ironic it is, then, that at the time of writing, that place which was once the very banner for peace and serenity was in the process of being ravaged by decades of war. This fascinating contradiction is nowhere more apparent than in the astounding choral ode that spans lines 668 to 719. Trademark Athenian pride and glory presented side by side with the graphic imagery of impending death combine to make for an ode about contradiction that is racked with contradiction itself.

The ode in question has been represented below:

"Stranger, in this land of fine horses you have come to earth's fairest home, the shining Colonus. [670] Here the nightingale, a constant guest, trills her clear note under the trees of green glades, dwelling amid the wine-dark ivy [675] and the god's inviolate foliage, rich in berries and fruit, unvisited by sun, unvexed by the wind of any storm. Here the reveller Dionysus ever walks the ground, [680] companion of the nymphs that nursed him. And, fed on heavenly dew, the narcissus blooms day by day with its fair clusters; it is the ancient crown of the Great Goddesses. [685] And the crocus blooms with a golden gleam. Nor do the ever-flowing springs diminish, from which the waters of Cephisus wander, and each day with pure [690] current it moves over the plains of the land's swelling bosom, bringing fertility. Nor have the dancing Muses shunned this place, nor Aphrodite of the golden rein. And there is a thing such as I have not heard of on Asian ground, [695] nor as ever yet born in the great Dorian isle of Pelops: a plant unconquered, self-renewing, causing terror to destroying enemies. [700] It greatly flourishes in this land—the gray-leafed olive, nurturer of children. Youth cannot harm it by the ravages of his hand, nor can any who lives with old age. For the sleepless eye [705] of Zeus Morios watches over it, and gray-eyed Athena. And I have more praise for this city our mother, [710] the gift of a great divinity, a glory most great: the might of horses, the might of colts, and the might of the sea. For you, son of Cronus, lord Poseidon, have set her on the throne of this pride, [715] by establishing first in our roads the bit that cures the rage of horses. And the shapely oar, well-fitted for the sea, in flying past the land leaps to follow the hundred-footed Nereids."

The play, Oedipus at Colonus, was written in the year 406 BCE. It was probably the last tragedy penned by Sophocles because he died sometime within the next two years, before the play was performed (Whitman, 1951). His death also preceded Athens' defeat in the Peloponnesian war at the hands of Sparta in 404 BCE. However, it would be a safe assumption to make that at the time that Sophocles wrote the play, the warning bells signifying impending doom were ringing loudly in Athens. The Spartan commander Lysander manoeuvred the Peloponnesian league to victory after victory and, at home, Athenians were consistently ravaged by the twin catastrophes of disease and starvation (Thucydides, A History of the Peloponnesian War). It was in this atmosphere that Sophocles sat down and wrote Oedipus at Colonus and about the glory days of old where travellers tired of strife would head towards Athens, the beacon of freedom and peace in Greece. It is easy to see, then, how it must have been almost impossible for Sophocles to not be influenced by the ambience of death and destruction around him. It is also easy to see how a proud citizen of a country so close to defeat would have inside of him an intense, fierce patriotism and, for Sophocles, what better outlet for such patriotic feelings would there have been than tragedy. And so we have this tragedy and, as the microcosm that I look at in this post, the choral ode.

The Athenians and the Spartans faced off in the Peloponnesian War

Now that we have situated the play in the context of an Athens at war, let us situate the choral ode in the play. Oedipus, travelling from Thebes along with his daughter Antigone, comes to a sacred grove in Colonus where they seek shelter and rest on a rock. They don't know where they are and so they stop a wayfarer to ask him where it is that they have come. The wayfarer tells them where they are and leaves to summon the elders of the village (the chorus). At this time, Ismene (Oedipus' other daughter) comes from Thebes with the news that Oedipus' sons, Polynices and Eteocles, are fighting over the Theban throne. Oedipus then tells his daughters that he has knowledge from the gods that the side that has him in their midst will win the Theban throne. By this time, the chorus arrives. The chorus, composed of old citizen men, berate them for trespassing on sacred land and for defiling the rock by sitting on it. They want Oedipus and his daughters to leave the land immediately. Oedipus, in desperation, presents himself as a supplicant and begs the elders to let him and his daughters stay in Colonus. The elders agree with the proviso that he purifies himself of the sin of trespassing on the sacred grove via a purification ritual which they describe. Ismene is dispatched to perform the ritual. The elders, curious, ask Oedipus about himself. Oedipus is reluctant to reveal his identity but the elders are insistent. When they learn who he is, they are horrified and seek to cleanse their land of the miasma of his presence and tell him to leave Colonus immediately. Oedipus pleads with them, and Theseus, the King of Attica, arrives to mediate the dispute. He grants Oedipus and his daughters sanctuary and promises them security and comfort in Colonus. It is at this point that the chorus sings praises to Athens through the choral ode that is the subject of this essay.

The ode begins with the chorus telling Oedipus that he has come to the right place if he wants rest and release from the pains and burdens of his past. Colonus is the best land in all of Greece, they say. This is a theme that recurs in the rest of the choral ode. One has to keep in mind that while writing this, Sophocles is in an Athens rent apart by war, disease and starvation. It is important to remember that Sophocles made the conscious choice to base this tragedy in Athens, a rarity in tragedy. As I have mentioned before, this was probably Sophocles' final composition, and at the time of writing he is about ninety years old (Whitman, 1951). He has lived a long life which has spanned the golden age of Athenian democracy and peace. He spent the prime of his life in the Athens he describes in this play and now, when he sees his beloved Athens falling apart, he chooses to remind himself and other Athenians of their glory days. I like to believe that he had another motive for writing of the golden age of Athenian democracy. At the time of the Peloponnesian war, Athenian democracy is not the same as it was back in the era Sophocles describes. It has been weakened by a multitude of weak politicians and corrupt statesmen. Much of Athens is disenchanted with the concept of democracy and there is a growing belief that another form of government would be better for Athens. I would like to believe that Sophocles, through 'Oedipus at Colonus', seeks to remind his fellow Athenians of what democracy has accomplished and the potential it has for assuring a good life for citizens, if done right.

A Relief showing Oedipus and the Sphinx

The ode goes on to tell us this is the land where the nightingale likes to live and where she "Trilleth her ceaseless song" (Storr, 1912). Sophocles here refers to the ancient myth involving Tereus, a son of Ares and the sisters Procne and Philomela. Ovid tells us of the myth where Tereus raped Philomela and cut out her tongue. Procne rescues her sister but Tereus chases after them. To get away and also to get back at Tereus, Philomela kills her son by him. The myth then tells us that Philomela is turned into a nightingale and her song is the lasting lamentation of a mother who killed her own son (Brown, 2004). The nightingale, then, was a powerful symbol of death and lamentation for the ancient Greeks. The nightingale is the first in a cluster of symbols representing death in the first part of the choral ode. It is also interesting to note that this particular image, i.e. that of Philomela, is taken from classical myth and slots comfortably into the genre of tragedy. The nightingale is also an interesting contradiction in itself. Sophocles describes its voice as clear and beautiful yet it stands for something so sinister. That very clear and beautiful song is, according to myth, a mothers' desperate lamentation for a son (Brown, 2004). And the chorus refers to this song as "ceaseless" (Storr, 1912). The beautiful Athens 'ceaselessly' draws nearer and nearer to destruction.

After this the ode has a string of references to the god Dionysus. They sing of "the wine-dark ivy that wreathes the vale" and "the clustering berries," both references to the deity (McNally, 1988). Dionysus, of course, is an extended metaphor for transgression: living on both sides of the fine line between life and death simultaneously. Here we get, for the first time, imagery involving precious hope along with death. Dionysus represents, more than anything, dualism. He represents death for several reasons. However, each of the stories involving him and death also include resurrection. The myth regarding his birth is an excellent example of this fact. His mother, Semele, was given one wish by Zeus when she was pregnant with Dionysus and she wished to see Zeus in his powerful divine form. Being a mortal, she could not survive being in the vicinity of such power and she perished. Attempting to save his son, Zeus snatched Dionysus from the womb of his dead mother and sewed him into his own thigh. Thus, Dionysus was born not once, but twice. This was his first experience of the death-resurrection cycle. Another myth where he dies and comes back from the dead once more also involves his mother. He seeks permission from Zeus to enter Hades and attempts to bring his mother back from the grave and restore her to Olympus. Zeus acquiesces to his request. The problem with the adventure was that for Dionysus to rescue Semele from Hades, he would have to go there and only the dead can enter the underworld. So Dionysus 'died' and entered Hades where he found Semele and brought her back to Olympus and in the process, both of them were resurrected. This makes him the god of boundaries: both dead and alive at once. Sophocles describes a grove in Colonus sacred to Dionysus where he says the god alone can tread. He makes the chorus tell us that Dionysus lives in Athens, that he is a part of Athens. So Athens may be destroyed and 'die' but there will be a 'resurrection' and Athens will come back to life once more even better than before. That's why I said that this part of the ode, where Dionysus is used as a symbol for Athens, represents hope and the possibility of life after death, i.e. that even if they lose to the Spartans, the Athenians will live on and flourish.

This is continued in the following post titled 'The Choral Ode in Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus: Part 2'.