La fin mystérieuse d’Œdipe dans l’Œdipe à Colone de Sophocle : aspects religieux et enjeux dramatiques d’une héroïsation

Can Oedipus’ journey from life to death, as it is dramatized in Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus, be interpreted in the light of Greek hero cult? Should the intriguing narrative of the messenger, telling of the mysterious disappearance of the hero in the sacred grove of the Eumenides, be read as an aetiology of Oedipus’ cults in Attic? No consensus exists among scholars about these questions and probably no definitive answer can be given to them. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the debate by confronting the Sophoclean representation of Oedipus’ death and posthumous existence, first, with previous traditions related to Œdipus’ death and cults, and secondly, with key features of hero cult. We will try to show that, while building on the religious experience of his public to arouse in it an intellectual and emotional response to the mysterious death of the protagonist, Sophocles wants us to understand Oedipus’ heroization above all as a dramatic event and the fulfillment of a unique destiny.