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In Sophocles’ twisted tragedy, don’t take any of the relationships at face value—especially not Oedipus the King’s relationship with his, um, multi-purpose relatives. Give us 60 seconds, and we’ll give you a download on the cast of Oedipus that could rival even the juiciest of today’s tabloid tales.

Video Transcription:

In this tragic play, the relationships between the cast members are pretty twisted. That’s because they’re all determined by what the gods have planned for Oedipus.

Oedipus is your main man in this play. He’s King of Thebes—a guy who seems decent enough, except for the fact that he doesn’t like it when anyone questions his authority. Oedipus is also troubled by the fact that he may be the gods’ pawn in a very ugly prophecy. But hopefully that’s not true. Hopefully …

Creon is Oedipus’s brother-in-law who brings the news about stopping the plague that’s plaguing Thebes. Oedipus doesn’t seem to like him very much, but that’s only because Creon plays a role in getting Oedipus to see the truth.

Tiresias is the blind prophet who has a clearer sense of vision about Oedipus than all the seeing cast members. It’s Tiresias who first tells Oedipus that he’s at fault for the plague and Tiresias who hints that he knows about the prophecy that shaped the life of the murderer of King Laius.

Queen Jocasta is Oedipus’s wife who’s not a big believer in prophecy … until the prophecy that her child would kill his father and marry his mother comes true. Oedipus is actually Queen Jocasta’s cast-off son. King Laius was his father. And now Oedipus is married to his mother, Queen Jocasta.

Like I said at the beginning: Pretty twisted.