This paper compares musical theatrical versions of the two ancient stories (the ancient Greek, and the ancient Roman one): Stravinsky’s opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex (1927) and Britten’s opera-mystery The Rape of Lucretia (1946). Identifying common features in genre, composition, dramatic and stylistic sphere, including the active assimilation of baroque components, the authors emphasize that the statuarity being more characteristic of the epically majestic Oedipus, but not alien to the dramatic and emotional Lucretia, is adjacent to the principles of symphonism. The musical conflict in both operas is seen as the collision of the Man and an insurmountable external force. Both Stravinsky and Britten subordinate the musical thematism associated with these characters to a similar logic of development, up to the parallels at the level of tonal semantics. The young Britten’s acquaintance with Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex in 1936 later served as one of the impulses for his reference to the ancient topic in opera. But despite certain similarities between the two works, each reveals the author’s own individuality: the monumental neoclassicism of Oedipus contrasts with the lyric-psychological mode of expression which dominates in the chamber opera Lucretia.