The Blind Leading: Aristophanes’ Wealth and Oedipus at Colonus

The opening scene of Aristophanes’ Wealth, by appropriating and concretizing the “blind man as leader” image from the end of Oedipus at Colonus, encourages its audience to misidentify the old blind character as Oedipus rather than Wealth. Wealth uses other references to Sophocles’ handling of Oedipus and Phineus to engage with Sophoclean themes of disease, healing, and redemption. Furthermore, both Wealth and Oedipus at Colonus end with the once-diseased figure reestablished as a benefactor to Athens. Recognizing this appropriation of Sophoclean material in Wealth further enhances our understanding of the relationship between comedy and tragedy in the early fourth century.