Ancient myths transformed into symbols and became the deepest part of Western thought and art. After the Renaissance in particular, myths evolved into a tool of expression and thinking, and after became the basis of mythology, which is the subject of a science. A Greek word, myth, universalizes from Ancient Greek beliefs and refers to the allegorical accounts of these beliefs. Attempts must be made to understand any literary text, especially theater texts as they are in the closest contact with all the emotions and life of the people and period, as well as to read these works with knowledge of what the social structure of that period was like. Because anything that did not occur in social life would not have appeared either in literature or on the stage.

The tragedy of Oedipus brings the duality of fate and vanity to the stage; it describes step by step what happens to the main character, who is sank in the divine hybris, and how he descends from the top of the wheel of fate to its bottom. Meanwhile, all characters are unaware of what is happening, and of the tragic event into which they have fallen. Oedipus, who unknowingly kills his father Laius, arrives in the city of Thebes and sees that a divine curse has fallen upon the city. The Sphinx stands at the top of the city and demands the answer to the riddle he asks. By solving the riddle, the answer to which no one knows or dares to answer because the sphinx swallows those who do not know the correct answer, Oedipus becomes king of the city that is headed by the queen, whose husband is dead. When he takes over this kingdom, he is a proud and confident man. But over time he begins to realize that things are not going well. First the plague begins to spread to all the people, and while whole families perish, Oedipus and his family are remain healthy. The tragedy of Oedipus, rewritten by Seneca during the imperial era of Rome, begins with the main character’s plea. Oedipus asks the gods in horror why he is healthy while so many people are wasting away. He comes to realize that the gods have a much worse plan for him. In both versions of the tragedies, Oedipus arrives, replacing the former king as the husband of the queen, who is practically obliged to remain in charge of the city, or more accurately, as the representative of the city. In antiquity, having a woman be alone was not preferable, so the one who leads the city rules both the city and the woman at its head, who is the representative of the old kingdom. From this point of view, the woman, Iocasta has no choice. In the Greek world, especially women were completely excluded from social life and had almost no place on the stage; even their death has announced by messengers or described by someone else. On the other hand, women in Ancient Rome were seen to be a little more involved in social life and to also be reflected on the stage; Iocasta, the female face of the tragedy, experiences her pain on stage in the tragic plane established by Seneca and she killed herself on stage as she says her last words and explain her feelings. The fact that this dramatic scene is clearly narrated and experienced by a woman reminds the audience that the story has another tragic character. Oedipus does not bear this shame alone, the woman who gave birth to him and then married him also expressed her shame in a shocking way.

In conclusion, one can clearly see the explicit distinction between Sophocles’ and Seneca’s texts and understand that this distinction is a reflection of social life. The fact that the female figure remains in the background in tragic texts does not mean that nothing tragic happened in the female side of the narrative. On the contrary, a much more passive and doomed female model is read. This is why the study has taken Iocasta as an example; seeing how she is positioned within a notion as well known to the public as the Oedipus complex will allow for an objective reading to be made and help at better understanding the emotions the fateful dilemma created in the characters.