Seneca’s Oedipus read Sophocles, and many passages of the Roman tragedy demonstrate the intensity of this intertextual dialogue. A synoptic reading of Sen. Oed. 695-708 and Soph. OT. 622-633 can lead to a clearer understanding of the Greek model, and in particular of line 628, which expresses the Sophoclean conception of power as an ineluctable necessity in human action.