Interdisciplinary Framework: Tragedy, Ritual, and Narrative

Markantonatos’ introduction situates Oedipus at Colonus within an interdisciplinary framework that combines literary analysis, ritual studies, and narrative theory. He approaches the play not only as a dramatic text but also as a cultural artefact reflecting Athenian conceptions of piety, citizenship, and moral transformation. Drawing on recent advances in narratology and religious anthropology, he traces how Sophocles constructs a narrative of redemption that transcends the limits of conventional tragic structure. The drama’s spatial movement—from Thebes to Colonus—becomes an allegory of purification; its temporal unfolding mirrors the ritual process of supplication and initiation. By analysing the play’s choral poetry, stage directions, and symbolic geography, the commentary exposes the intricate interplay between ritual form and dramatic narration. The sacred topography of Colonus, described with exquisite lyricism, is read as both literal and metaphysical landscape—a space where human suffering attains transcendence. This synthesis of disciplines allows the reader to perceive Oedipus at Colonus not merely as a literary artefact but as an imaginative reconstruction of the moral universe of classical Athens.