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Sophocles\\u2019 play Oedipus Rex begins with a warning: the murderer of the old king of Thebes, Laius, has never been identified or caught, and he\\u2019s still at large in the city. Oedipus is the current king of Thebes, and he sets out to solve the crime.

His investigations lead to a devastating conclusion. Not only is Oedipus himself the killer, but Laius was his father, and Laius\\u2019 wife Jocasta, who Oedipus has married, is his mother.

Oedipus Rex was composed during the golden age of Athens, in the 5th century BC. Sophocles probably wrote it to explore the dynamics of power in an undemocratic society. It has unsettled audiences from the very start: it is the only one of Sophocles\\u2019 plays that didn\\u2019t win first prize at Athens\\u2019 annual drama festival. But it\\u2019s had exceptionally good write-ups from the critics: \\nAristotle called it the greatest example of the dramatic arts. Freud believed it laid bare the deepest structures of human desire.

With:

Nick Lowe, Reader in Classical Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London

Fiona Macintosh, Professor of Classical Reception and Fellow of St Hilda\\u2019s College at the University of Oxford

Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at Durham University