Medea
Summary
Medea’s husband has left her for another woman. The daughter of King Kreon. She despises him for doing so, and curses him and his father. King Kreon has allowed her to stay in Corinth one more day, as long as she doesn’t do any evil. Jason was trying to tell Medea he was doing it for her and the children. Marry into prosperity. Then they would have brother and sisters of royalty. Medea says it is still evil to betray your wife in that way. Jason offers her some alimony, child support, and contacts with his friends that will help her once she and the kids have left the city. Medea refuses to take anything from him. Her friend Aigeus visits Medea. She asked him to make an oath to the gods that if she escapes her city on her own will; he will keep her with him safely and will not turn her over to her enemies (Jason & Kreon). Medea plans to kill the bride with poison. Medea sends the children with Jason to the bride with the poison dress and crown. She and her father die an awful death with suffering as well. Medea then kills the children, even though the chorus told her not to do so. Jason returns looking for Medea. She is on a chariot built by her father, and ready to flee to Aigeus. Jason desperately wants to kiss his dead children or even bury them but Medea refuses to give him the satisfaction. Medea succeeds in her plan and Jason is lonely and tormented.
Themes and Motifs
Xenophobia
Euripides’s Medea explores the tensions which existed between citizens and foreigners and Greece’s subsequent Xenophobia. In the play, Medea represents the non-citizen who completely lacked legal and social rights. Not only is she far from the comforts of her native land, but also, as both a woman and a foreigner, she is viewed as a “poor creature” (643), below the level of a human being.
As Doctor Gerry Lucas pointed out in his lecture, marriage was a citizen’s contract, meaning Medea had no legal hold on Jason and could not take any form of official recourse. The Nurse laments that “…she has discovered by her sufferings/ What it means to one not to have lost one’s own country” (643). The Nurse is making a deliberate comparison to Jason, who as a male citizen enjoyed legal protection and political activity. Medea, a female non-citizen, is left without a voice or support. Her lack of institutional support led to the necessity that she herself administer Jason’s punishment.
Jason most aptly expresses the Xenophobic snobbery inherent in such disparity between citizen and foreigner. As he explains to Medea the advantages of living in a ‘civilized’ culture he insists that “…instead of living among barbarians/ You inhabit a Greek land and understand our ways/ How to live by law instead of the sweet will of force” (653.) Such ethnocentric attitudes were both stemmed from and perpetuated by the lack of citizen’s rights. According to Wikipedia, women and foreigners were unable to vote and therefore could not create public policy that would help eradicate Ancient Greece’s sexism and xenophobia.
Historical Context
Greek tragic playwright, Euripides was born in Athens circa 480 BCE. He is credited with authoring at least 80 plays, 19 of which have survived until modern times. Several of his tragedies feature very strong female characters, including The Trojan Women and Medea. He died at the court of the Macedonian king in 406 BCE. His work gained a greater popularity after his death than it had received during his lifetime (Crystal 317).
Medea was first produced in Athens in 431 BCE. According to legislation passed, twenty years earlier, a foreign woman could not legally marry an Athenian male. Any children begotten through such a union would not be considered legitimate heirs in the eyes of the law (Vandiver 217-16).
Works Cited
Crystal, David. The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia. Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. New York. 1995.
Vandiver, Elizabeth. Greek Tragedy. The Teaching Company. Course # 217. Lectures 1-24.
Feminist Concerns
Characters
Medea is the princess of the Isle of Colchis.(642) She falls in love with a man named Jason when he reached the land of Colchis in pursuit of the Golden Fleece.(642) Medea falls in love with Jason, helps him steal the Golden Fleece from her own country and leaves with him.(642) She eventually marries Jason and has children with him as they have moved to live in exile in Corinth.(643)
Medea learns Jason has been dipping his noodle in the King of Corinth’s daughter.(643) She learns he has intentions of marrying her and leaving Medea and the kids to fend for themselves.(647) Kreon, King of Corinth, hears of Medea’s anger with Jason and the king’s daughter.(648) Kreon approaches Medea and sentences her to exile.(648)
Nothing like a woman scorned as Medea in her angered state plans for the demise of her husband, his new bride to be, and her father.(658) Medea first covers her base by finding a safe place to live in exile. (656) King Aigeus, King of Athens, agrees that if she can find her way to his doorstep she can stay forever and be safe.(656)
Now Medea plans the way to kill Jason’s bride to be and anyone who touches her.(658) She plans to poison two bridal gifts for Jason’s new bride and have the children hand deliver them to her.(659) Jason falls for the plan and takes the children to his bride to be where she receives her gifts and puts them on falling to her death.(664) The children return to Medea where she kills them right before Jason returns to find out what dastardly deed she has done.(669) Medea escapes Corinth with her dead children on a dragon drawn chariot given to her by Helios, her father’s father to protect her from her enemies.(670) She escapes to live in Athens and Jason never sees his children again.(670)
Commentaries
Sources
Athenian Democracy. 2005. Wikipedia. 8 April 2005 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athenian_democracy#Citizenship_in_Athens>.