Euripides, Medea
As we saw in Apollonius' Argonautica, Jason is one of many heroes in Greek mythology who allowed women to help him complete a task, took them away from their homeland, and then abandoned them later. Can you think of any others? Euripides’ play Medea explores the tragic consequences of Jason’s abandonment of Medea.
What has Medea sacrificed for Jason?
On p. 324 Jason says to Medea “You’ve received more than you gave.” What does he mean? Do you agree? The concepts of Family and Marriage are frequently invoked in the play – what roles are women expected to play? How do they conflict with one another? How does a woman’s birth family interact with her marital family? What is the importance of a woman’s birth family? What is Medea’s situation with regards to her two families? When Jason marries Creusa, does she have the option to return to her birth family? Why or why not? What perspective does the chorus represent? How do you think the chorus feels about Medea and her actions? Does Medea “fit in” in Corinth? Why or why not? Compare Medea’s feelings about her birth family vs. her marital family to those expressed by Antigone (the daughter of Oedipus, who was put to death for burying her brother against the orders of the king): Antigone: My wedding grave! My eternal home, dug deep into the earth! I’m starting off for you, for my people of whom Hades’ wife, Persephone received a multitude. I’m the last of them and much more wretched than them. I go before my time. But I go with the fervent hope that my father will receive me with love. You, too, mother and you, too, brother Eteocles whom I love very much. Because it was these hands which have washed your bodies, which have dressed you and which have honoured you with all the gifts given to the dead. Yet, now, Polyneices, I’m suffering this way because I want to bury your body also. Yet I’ve honoured you justly and all those with a wise mind would agree. Whether a mother of children or a wife, I’d always take up this struggle and go against the city’s laws. And which laws am I talking about? Were I married and my husband died, I could have married yet another; and had I children and they died I could have had more by another man. But once my parents go down to Hades, it is no longer possible for me to have a brother. And so I’ve put you ahead of Creon’s laws, my dearest brother and Creon thinks it is an act of crime and an act of intolerable arrogance. And so he has tied my hands and is dragging me to Hades even before I know the joys of a wedding night, before I see a husband next to me, before I raise any children. Only abandoned thus by my friends, not yet dead, I go down. I, whose Fate is dark, am now taken down into the shadowy alleys of the dead, without having trampled on any god’s law. And why should I put my hope on the gods? Whom shall I call for an ally when, by doing what is just I have been judged unjustly? Yet, if all this is thought by the gods to be just, I would die, admitting that I acted unjustly. If, however, it is the others who are at fault, then let them not suffer all that which they made me suffer. Why does Aigeus offer Medea refuge in Athens? Why does Medea kill her children? At the end, do you think she has achieved what she wanted? Why or why not? Quotes to ponder… Jason, p. 322: “I am not the man to let down those I care for, my dear.” Medea, p. 321: “You musn’t disgrace your family.” p. 322: “Women are better than men at planning evil.” p. 323: “Those I should love have made themselves accursed, while others who’d normally be my friends I’ve alienated for your sake.” Tutor, p. 313: “Everyone looks after himself before anyone else.” Medea does not kill her children in all versions of the myth. Why do you think Euripides chose to have Medea kill her children? |
Characters to KnowMedea
Jason Tutor Nurse Creon Aigeus |