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[[Category:World Literature]] | [[Category:World Literature]] | ||
The story of Medea is one of the best known and widely translated Greek tragedies. Euripides starts this tragedy with the nurse telling what has happened up to this point. He opens a new outlook to tragedy by showing Medea as woman and foreigner, which have almost no rights at all, which is out to avenge her husband Jason for leaving her for another woman. | |||
Medea was the daughter of Aeetes, King of Colchis. Medea fell hopelessly in love with Jason, the commander of the Argonauts, who came to Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece. In return for Jason’s pledge of everlasting love and to take her back to Greece with him. With Medea’s magic she deceived her father to help Jason obtain the Golden Fleece. Medea and Jason sail from Colchis to return to Greece, but to escape Aeetes; Medea kills her brother, Apsyrtus and scatters his remains over the sea. When Aeetes stops to gathering up the remains of Apsyrtus, Jason and his crew manage to escape. | |||
In Greece Jason finds his parents are killed by Pelias. To avenge the death of his parent, Jason asked Medea to help him with her magic. As always Medea grants his wishes and brings about Pelias’s death by a cunning trick. She tells the daughters of Pelias that they could help their aging father to become young again. Medea cuts up an old sheep and boils it, then says a magic spell and a young lamb jumps from the pot and runs away. This convinces the daughters of Pelias that they could make their father young again. So, Medea gave Pelias a sleeping potion, and the girls began to cut their father up but Medea disappeared without saying the magic spell to bring him back to life, thus causing the daughters to killing their father. | |||
After this Medea and Jason escaped to Corinth, where they had two sons. They were living very happy until Jason fell in love with the daughter of King Creon of Corinth. Jason left Medea and was going to marry the Kings daughter to make more wealth and power for him and his sons. But Medea was devastated, and she mourned for Jason and their life together. Medea was going crazy and crying out of control and people around her home began to hear her and word got back to the king. King Creon was worried about the emotional state that Medea was in and what she could do to him and to his daughter. He told Medea that she had to leave the city and take her children with her. So to get her revenge, Medea kills the daughter with a poisoned robe, which kills the daughter and the King. Soon after their death the messenger comes to Medea kills her to sons so that Jason will have to suffer a long a painful life, without the Kings daughter and his two sons. Medea escapes from Jason by leaving Corinth, flying to Athens in a chariot from Helios. | |||
Bates, Alfred. "The Dram: It's History, Literture and Influence on Civilization", vol 1. 1906 | |||
COllier Michael. "The Virginia Quarlerly Review." Charlottesville: 2004. | |||