While Antigone impetuously wishes to rush to her father's grave, Ismene reminds her it would be against their father's last wishes. Antigone even expresses a wish to die beside her father, but Ismene seems more concerned with how the two of them will continue to live. Thus, the essential difference, as in Antigone, is that one sister is more concerned with death; the other with life.

Theseus' offer to send the sisters to Thebes connects the end of this play logically to the sequel Antigone (written earlier). The chorus wraps up the play with the comment that the wanderer's journey is done and all the events of the play are an assertion of the divine laws.

1. The brazen stairs/threshold: (See note to the Strangers' use of this phrase in the Prologue.) Here Sophocles brings the play full cycle by once more referring to the brazen stairs. It has now become Oedipus' final resting place.

2. Perithous.....Stone/Marble from Thoricus: Thoricus was an area of Greece famed for its fine marble, from which the monument was built. Peirithous, King of the Lapiths, was met by Theseus when he raided Marathon, and the two became friends. Later, Theseus was present at his wedding to Mippodamia. In the subsequent fight between Lapiths and Centaurs (who abducted the bride and other female guests), Theseus helped Peirithous to rescue the women. He also helped Peirithous to invade the underworld in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue Persephone who was abducted by Hades. A monument to commemorate the sacred covenant between these two friends stood at Colonus.

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