Introduction

Abstract The Oedipus at Colonus, written by Sophocles in the last years of his life (he died in 406 BCE) and not produced until after his death (perhaps in 401 BCE), is a powerful exploration of what survives endingsthe ending of an individual life (Oedipus dies at the end of the play); the ending of a city (in 404 Sophocles’ native city, Athens, came to the end of its role as the primary political presence in the Mediterranean world through its defeat by Sparta and its allies after a long and costly war); and the end of the poet’s own life (Sophocles was probably ninety when he wrote the play).