Medea (play)

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Medea

Written by	Euripides
Chorus	Corinthian Women
Characters	Medea Creon Jason King Aegeus Nurse Tutor Messenger Medea's two children
Setting	Before Medea's house in Corinth

Medea is a tragedy written by Euripides, based on the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BCE. Along with the plays Philoctetes, Dictys and Theristai, which were all entered as a group, it won the third prize at the Dionysia festival. The plot largely centres on the protagonist in a struggle with the world, rendering it the most Sophoclean of Euripides' extant plays. The play is notable in that either Medea or Jason can be viewed as the tragic hero.

1 Plot
2 Themes
3 Quotations about the character Medea
4 Reaction
5 Film Adaptations
6 Translations
7 Additional resources

[edit] Plot

The play tells the story of the jealousy and revenge of a woman betrayed by her husband. The concentrated action of the play is at Corinth, where Jason has brought Medea after the adventures of the Golden Fleece but has now left her to marry the daughter of King Creon (elsewhere known as Glauce, and also known in Latin works as Creusa - see Seneca the Younger's Medea and Propertius 2.16.30). The play opens with Medea grieving over her loss, and her elderly nurse fearing what she might do to herself or her children.

Creon, also fearing what Medea might do, arrives determined to send Medea into exile. Medea pleads for one day's delay. She then begins to plan the deaths of Jason, Glauce, and Creon. Meanwhile Jason arrives to confront her and explain himself. He believes he could not pass up the opportunity to marry a royal princess, as Medea is only a barbarian woman, but hopes to someday join the two families and keep Medea as his mistress. Medea, and the chorus of Corinthian women, do not buy his story. She reminds him that she left her own barbarian people for him ("I am the mother of your children. Whither can I fly, since all Greece hates the barbarian?"), and that she had caused Pelias, whom he feared, to be killed by his own daughters.

"It is not you," answers Jason, "who once saved me, but love, and you have had from me more than you gave. I have brought you from a barbarous land to Greece, and in Greece you are esteemed for your wisdom. And without fame of what avail is treasure or even the gifts of the Muses? Moreover, it is not for love that I have promised to marry the princess, but to win wealth and power for myself and for my sons. Neither do I wish to send you away in need; take as ample a provision as you like, and I will recommend you to the care of my friends."

She refuses with scorn his base gifts, "Marry the maid if thou wilt; perchance full soon thou mayst rue thy nuptials."

Next Medea is visited by Aegeus, King of Athens, who shares the prophecy that will lead to the birth of Theseus; Medea begs him to protect her, in return for her help in his wife conceiving a child. Aegeus does not know what Medea is going to do in Corinth, but promises to give her refuge in any case, provided she can escape to Athens.

Medea then returns to her scheming, plotting how she may kill Creon and Glauce. She decides to poison some golden robes (a family heirloom and gift from the sun god), in hopes that the bride will not be able to resist wearing them, and consequently be poisoned. Medea resolves to kill her own children as well, not because the children have done anything wrong, but because she feels it is the best way to hurt Jason. She calls for Jason once more, falsely apologizes to him, and sends the poisoned robes with her children as the gift-bearers.

"Forgive what I said in anger! I will yield to the decree, and only beg one favor, that my children may stay. They shall take to the princess a costly robe and a golden crown, and pray for her protection."

The request is granted and the gifts are accepted. Offstage, while Medea ponders her actions, Glauce is killed by the poisoned dress, and Creon is also killed by the poison while attempting to save her. These events are related by a messenger.

"Alas! The bride had died in horrible agony; for no sooner had she put on Medea's gifts than a devouring poison consumed her limbs as with fire, and in his endeavor to save his daughter the old father died too."

Medea is pleased, and gives a soliloquy pondering her next action:

"In vain, my children, have I brought you up,

Borne all the cares and pangs of motherhood,

And the sharp pains of childbirth undergone.

In you, alas, was treasured many a hope

Of loving sustentation in my age,

Of tender laying out when I was dead,

Such as all men might envy.

Those sweet thoughts are mine no more, for now bereft of you

I must wear out a drear and joyless life,

And you will nevermore your mother see,

Nor live as ye have done beneath her eye.

Alas, my sons, why do you gaze on me,

Why smile upon your mother that last smile?

Ah me! What shall I do? My purpose melts

Beneath the bright looks of my little ones.

I cannot do it. Farewell, my resolve,

I will bear off my children from this land.

Why should I seek to wring their father's heart,

When that same act will doubly wring my own?

I will not do it. Farewell, my resolve.

What has come o'er me? Shall I let my foes

Triumph, that I may let my friends go free?

I'll brace me to the deed. Base that I was

To let a thought of wickedness cross my soul.

Children, go home. Whoso accounts it wrong

To be attendant at my sacrifice,

Let him stand off; my purpose is unchanged.

Forego my resolutions, O my soul,

Force not the parent's hand to slay the child.

Their presence where we will go will gladden thee.

By the avengers that in Hades reign,

It never shall be said that I have left

My children for my foes to trample on.

It is decreed."

She rushes offstage with a knife to kill her children. As the chorus laments her decision, the children are heard screaming. Jason rushes to the scene to punish her for the murder of Glauce and learns that his children too have been killed. Medea then appears above the stage in the chariot of the sun god Helios; this was probably accomplished using the mechane device usually reserved for the appearance of a god or goddess. She confronts Jason, revelling in his pain at being unable to ever hold his children again:

"I do not leave my children's bodies with thee; I take them with me that I may bury them in Hera's precinct. And for thee, who didst me all that evil, I prophesy an evil doom."

She escapes to Athens with the bodies. The chorus is left contemplating the will of Zeus in Medea's actions:

Manifold are thy shapings, Providence!

Many a hopeless matter gods arrange.

What we expected never came to pass,

What we did not expect the gods brought to bear;

So have things gone, this whole experience through!"

[edit] Themes

Unlike the plays of Aeschylus or Sophocles, Euripides shows the inner emotions of passion, love, and vengeance. The play is often seen as one of the first works of feminism, and Medea is seen as a feminist heroine. Many scholars of Greek theatre have challenged the theory that Medea reflects any feminist ideologies, believing that Euripides was explicitly mocking and describing how they ought not to behave. Moderation was also a theme of the play, and a popular value in ancient Greece. Medea's actions were seen as erratic because they were not in moderation, and in the time of the play, women did not have much say in what went on. Therefore, Medea's reaction was not one taken in moderation. Moderation of everything was one of the Greek ideas, for example, moderation of love, the result being balance and harmony.

The theme of children and childlessness also runs through the play. Medea kills her two sons in order to cause Jason pain, yet in doing so, she knows she too will hurt from her own actions. People needed their children to look after them in old age, which is why Medea's punishment for Jason is doubly harsh - 'old age is approaching', she taunts him. Aegeus is also childless, and goes to an oracle to see if he will ever have children. Medea, in promising to give him children using her magic herbs, has gained for herself a place of sanctuary. Aegeus would shelter a killer for children, which shows how important children are to him.

[edit] Quotations about the character Medea

NURSE:

'Devoted to Jason'
'She is a frightening woman'
'Her mood is cruel, her nature dangerous'

CREON:

'A clever woman, skilled in many arts'
'[a woman who is] quiet and clever'

JASON:

'You talked like a fool'
'I admit you have intelligence'

AEGEUS:

'Certainly; a brain like yours [i.e. clever] is what is needed'
'Your forethough is remarkable'

MEDEA HERSELF:

'A stranger'
' I'd rather stand 3 times in the front line than bear one child'
'Yes, I can endure guilt, however, horrible; the laughter of my enemies I will not endure'
'We women are the most wretched'
'We wives are forced to look to one man only'
'A woman's weak and timid in most matters... but touch her right in marriage, and there's no bloodier spirit.'
'An Asiatic wife was no longer respectable'
'Let no one think of me as humble or weak or passive... let them understand I am of a different kind, dangerous to my enemies, loyal to my friends.'
'The gifts of a bad man bring no good with them.'

[edit] Reaction

Although the play is considered one of the great plays of the Western canon, the Athenian audience did not react so favourably, and awarded it only the third place prize at the Dionysia festival in 431. This was possibly because of Euripides' extensive changes to the conventions of Greek theatre. To have included an indecisive chorus, his criticism of Athenian society and his eventual disrespect for the gods - inhibit in Artemis, the acclaimed goddess of light and justice, acting for the now apparently evil Medea in carrying her to King Aegeus, was to repeal the purpose of the Dionysian plays: to appreciate Grecian society and uphold the power of the gods. However, it has also been argued that Medea was awarded third place because the competition at that particular Dionysia was so fierce, not because the Athenians were in any way opposed to the play's content.

With the rediscovery of the text in 1st century Rome, 16th century Europe and in the light of 20th century modern literary criticism, Medea has provoked differing reactions from differing critics and writers who have sought to interpret the reactions of their societies in the light of past generic assumptions; bringing a fresh interpretation to its universal themes of revenge and justice in an injust society.