By Euripides
441 BC
Is revenge ever justified? It can
feel so good, or can make you
feel worse. Does the concept of
an “eye for an eye” apply? Or, is
it just unnecessary and
irrational?
1.
Men versus Women
2.
Husband versus Wife
3.
Foreign versus Native
(citizen)
• Medea was originally produced in 441 BC, and derived from a
collection of tales that circulated informally around all Athenians.
• Euripides’ audience would have been familiar with its general
parameters and many of its specifics.
• The play's merit consequently lies in its manner of exposition and its
emotional focus, which Euripides places squarely in the flights of
amoral passion that afflict the protagonist, Medea.
• Her infamous murders of her own children challenged the Athenian
moral universe that continually hovers in the background of the play.
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In the opening, a nurse gives exposition but at the
same time she also expresses a wish that the past
could be undone.
Medea, Jason, the chorus, and others will replay
their own versions of this futile wish at various
stages in the play.
 Jason and Medea each express remorse at having
inaugurated the events the nurse recounts; their
past love has doomed them in the present.
Tragedy, as an art form, often imparts a very basic
message: actions, premeditated or not, bear
consequences that must be recognized and
endured.
Unlike Jason, who uses deceptive rationalizations
to avoid facing the consequences of his own
actions, Medea simply rides her passions
unthinkingly.
 Even before Creon banishes Medea, she is
already a perennial exile, unconcerned with the
chains of responsibility that bind her.
Both Jason and Medea illustrate the play's most
significant absence—accountability.
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After planting the crucial backdrop to the story, the
play immediately introduces us to Medea's total
despair:
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Upon being abandoned by Jason, offering in the process
Euripides' fundamental psychological insight that victims of
an intense emotional wound (Medea) not only turn against
those who inflict it (Jason) but against their entire world of
emotional attachments (her children).
Against some interpretations of Medea, which claim
she struggles between her devotion as a mother and
her desire for revenge, we could infer from her first
cries that her children's murder is fated from the
beginning--the natural consequence of Medea's
overwhelming emotional shock.
 The offspring of Jason and Medea, the children are
presented as naïve and oblivious to the intrigue that
surrounds them.
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Medea uses them as pawns in the murder of Glauce and
Creon, and then kills them in the play's culminating horror.
Their innocent deaths provide the greatest element of
pathos--the tragic emotion of pity--in the play.
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Their silence as characters without names shows their
marginal role between two warring parents.
Medea is part of the gallery of Euripides' "bad
women." Euripides was often attacked for
portraying what Aristotle called
"unscrupulously clever" women as his main
characters; he depicts his tragic heroines with
far less apology than his contemporaries.
 We are not, as in Aeschylus' Oresteia, allowed
to comfort ourselves with the restoration of
male-dominated order. In Medea that order is
exposed as hypocritical and spineless, and in
the character of Medea, we see who a woman
whose suffering, instead of ennobling her, has
made her monstrous.
 The play is often seen as one of the first works
of feminism, and Medea is seen as a feminist
heroine.
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 However,
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.
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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.
VCU TV – filmed 2007 production of
Medea done with sign language and
interpretative movement
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Medea’s nurse serves as her chief servant, governess
of the children, and confidante; therefore, she
knows Medea well. How does she describe Medea’s
reaction to Jason’s abandonment?
What does she say about Medea’s personality and
temperament?
Which of her statements foreshadow impending
events?
When Medea addresses the chorus, how does she gain
their sympathy (In your answer, consider that the
chorus consists of Corinthian women)?
What does Medea ask them?
When Creon goes to Medea to order her and her
children out of Corinth, why does he particularly fear
Medea?
Does Medea truly mean to be reconciled with Creon
or does she have ulterior motives in mind?
Why does Creon finally agree to allow Medea to
remain in Corinth for twenty-four hours?
How does his submission to her plea make him a
more human character?
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10.
When the play opens, where is Medea and what is she
doing?
Upon what three “creatures” does Medea seek to
take revenge?
Why does the Chorus of Corinthian women agree to
keep Medea’s plans for revenge secret?
How does Medea deceive Creon into letting her stay
in Corinth for one more day?
How does Jason rationalize his marriage with Creon’s
daughter to Medea?
Aegeus will accept Medea as an exile under what
condition?
How does Medea plan to gain Jason’s confidence?
One conflict that presents itself in the play is:
Another conflict that presents itself in the play is:
A third conflict that presents itself in the play is:
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7.
8.
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10.
When Act II opens, Medea begs Jason for what?
Medea says, “But we _____ are—well, I shan’t say
entirely worthless; but we are what we are. And you
men shouldn’t stoop to our level…”
How does Jason feel Medea’s mind has turned?
What does Jason promise Medea he will try to do?
Medea cries, "Oh, I am lost!" at what news?
The Chorus considers _____ to be the most terrible
grief of all?
How does Medea respond to the Messenger's urgings
to flee after the royal murders?
Creon died as a result of _____?
After the royal murders, Jason returns to do what?
One reason the Greeks used a messenger to avoid
violence on stage is:
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For each of the quotes listed, complete
the following:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Who is speaking?
To or about whom is the speaker speaking?
Paraphrase the meaning of the line(s).
What do the lines foreshadow (#’s 4 – 8)?
Write 2 – 3 sentences about how you feel
about each line (do you believe there is truth
in the line, or have you ever witnessed
similar circumstances?).
 After
Euripides’ play is concluded, Medea
eventually becomes Aegeus’ wife and has
another child named Medus.
 Medea continues her violent ways and tries
to have Aegeus’ son, Theseus, killed.
 As a result, King Aegeus drives her out of
Athens.
 She returns to Colchis where eventually Hera
makes her immortal because she rebukes
Zeus.
 Medea then marries Achilles and lives
eternally in the Elysian fields.
 Jason
doesn’t fair as well. He is no longer a
hero and dies in obscurity when a piece of
his ship falls on him.