Where Three Roads Meet: The Myth Of Oedipus

At the end of his life, an old man waits in his office for a stranger to arrive. Over the next few weeks, Teiresias will visit again, making his way across the heath to relate the story of his life. As these two men sit together in front of a roaring fire, a remarkable tale unfolds. The compelling story of Oedipus, who, unknowingly, kills his father and marries his mother, is probably the most influential of all the Greek myths, having furnished Freud's theory of psychoanalysis. Bestselling novelist Salley Vickers, herself a former psychoanalyst, takes the ancient story of patricide and incest and explores it through the vision of Teiresias, the blind seer, who alone 'sees' the truth about the protagonists' terrible past and their place in the cosmic order. Salley Vickers says, I am interested in what human beings believe they know and in fact don't know, which for me is the true tragedy of Oedipus. It is an utterly contemporary drama about the ways we blind ourselves to reality and the price we pay for knowledge.