Introduction

Recent critical attention has focused on the political use of myth in the Athenian state, and on the use of Athenian drama, in particular, as both mirror to and participant in the cultural and political discourse of Athens. Athenian drama was acutely sensitive to the circumstances of its performance that formed its audience. Oedipus' curse on his sons in Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus adapted to serve the needs of audience in particular historical circumstances. I will argue that the development of the story of Oedipus' curse on his sons in Oedipus at Colonus transforms the blind Theban exile into an Athenian saviour hero, before an audience in critical need of reassurance (Aeschylus, 1999). According to the second hypothesis, Sophocles composed the Oedipus at Colonus in 405 BC; it performed in 401 BC, three years after Athens surrendered to the Spartans and their allies. Although in 405 BC, the Athenians had not yet conceded defeat, the end was in sight. Since the Sicilian expedition Athens had heard no good news and, after many years of war, defeat was all but certain. The Thebans themselves posed special problems for Athens. The Boeotians had made an unsuccessful attack on Athens near Colonus in 407 BC, and the Thebans made serious depredations on Athenian territory for some time before the end of the war. After the Athenian surrender in 404 BC, the Thebans were in the forefront of those demanding the destruction of the city. The play's intended audience of 405 BC faced looming defeat, and its performance audience of 401 BC had fallen entirely into the power of its dangerous neighbours. Sophocles' play presented to each group the promise of powerful supernatural support, in the form of a hero who had defected from the side of one of its most persistent enemies (Sophocles, 1988).

Discussion

The story of Oedipus' curse on his sons used to affect the metamorphosis of Oedipus into both a hero, and an Athenian, in two ways. Firstly, Oedipus changes in status from refugee to savoir hero produced by his gradual comprehension and ultimate use of his power to curse his sons. Secondly, the unfolding of the curse used as a vehicle for the reiteration and re enactment of the causes for Oedipus' hostility towards Thebes, a necessary precondition for his new loyalty to Athens. Previous scholarship on the curse has concentrated on its use as an index of Oedipus' divine status. (Aeschylus, 1999).

All ancient sources agree that Oedipus cursed his sons, but the reason varies with the source. In the Thebaid, it was because they served him wine in Cadmus' drinking cup and gave him only the haunch of an animal at a sacrifice. In Euripides, the gods compelled Oedipus to pass on the curse of Laius. In Aeschylus, he cursed them in horror when he discovered their incestuous origin. The Athenian audience, schooled in epic and well acquainted with drama, can reasonably expected to know the story of Oedipus' curse on his sons. The suspense, for this audience, was ...