Jocasta and Medea Both Jocasta and Medea offer different views of the roles that women played in Greek society. While women definitely played a role which was subservient to the one played by men, it is obvious that these women were seen by the ancient Greeks as capable of being strong, intelligent, resourceful, loyal, and heroic. In most cases, a woman’s role is restricted to bearing young, raising children, and housework. Both Medea and Jocasta represent something powerful to their society. In both Oedipus the King and Medea, the dominant female characters impacted upon men with authority and political power. It is an inescapable fate that one of these characters will fall. This is what leads to the inevitable tragedy. I believe that Medea has more power than Jocasta. She is an outsider, unlike Jocasta who is Greek. Both Medea and Jocasta try to control their fate. The reason Jason married Medea was because she helped him get what he wanted, which was, to win the Golden Fleece. She had just as much power as Jason did. Medea was married to Jason, until he decided that he wanted somebody with more power. Jocasta discovers that she is the mother and wife of Oedipus. Jocasta became part of the Theban dynasty when she married Oedipus’s father Laios. That then brought together a powerful strength.

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When the play Oedipus the King starts, the citizens had gathered outside the palace of their king Oedipus, asking him to take action because there was a plague that had stricken Thebes. Oedipus replies “I sent my wife’s brother, Kreon, to great Apollo’s shrine at Delphi, I sent him to learn what I must say or do to save Thebes (Sophocles 746).” Kreon returned with a message from Apollo. Kreon said that the plague will end when the murder of