Questions re: "Medea," by Euripides, for Monday, April 27th

I. Is the major theme of this play the emotion of love vs. the emotion of hate?

A. The timelessness of Greek tragedy seems to lie in its ability to portray human emotions that do not change. Frequently one reads in today's papers about the tragedy of a parent who kills his spouse and children and then kills himself. Euripides creates in Medea a character so consumed with hate that she will murder her own children to avenge herself against her husband. Yet she provides an "escape hatch" for herself: she wants to live! Why is this so?

1. If Medea had not been a woman, would she have turned to such violent actions for her revenge? Could she have acted differently as a man?

2. Is there anything to admire in the character of Medea?


B. This play seems to conform to the classic requirements for a Greek tragedy in that it involves the fall of a character of "high estate" due to a "fatal/tragic" flaw in a drama taking place within 24 hours (what a difference a day makes!). In this case it seems to involve two characters: Jason and the King.

1. What are the tragic flaws that bring each one down?

2. Does Euripides's treatment of persons of lower estate (viz., the nurse and attendant, pp. 24-27) give a message to the audience that all things considered it's better to be born low than high?

3. What is the role of the chorus in this particular play and why do they seem to "befriend" Medea?

Some Key Passages to Reread

Medea's speeches on pp. 30-31; 46-47

Four chorus stanzas on pp. 35-36

Medea's speech and choral response, pp. 53-56

April the Cruelest Month?

In the fall of 2006, our group read and discussed Euripides's Iphigenia at Aulis. That play portrayed a key lead-in to the Trojan War, the sacrifice of the princess Iphigenia to gain favorable winds for the voyage of the Greek fleet.

This month we are reading another Euripides play, Medea. The plot of the Medea comes not from the long saga of the Trojan War but from another great Greek mythic cycle, that of Jason, the Argonauts, Medea, and the Golden Fleece.

Medea was a princess in the far-eastern land of Colchis. In her lineage there was a strong predeliction for sorcery and witchcraft. She assists Jason and the Argonauts in the quest for the Golden Fleece, then returns to Greece as Jason's wife. A string of heroics (with an atrocity or two mixed in) leads them to Corinth in the Peloponnese. There Jason aspires to wed King Kreon's daughter, but is faced with the inconvenient fact that he's already married to Medea and has two sons by her. Medea exacts her vengeance on Jason in an unspeakable fashion, which may or may not have been Euripides own elaboration of the story.

Medea was first performed in 431 B.C. in an Athenian playfest. It took last place. The winning plays, by Euphorion, are lost, as is the Sophoclean trilogy that took second place. The Medea survives both in physical form and in popularity. According to scholar Richmond Y. Hathorn, "[w]ith the enactment of the struggle in Medea's breast between her feelings as spurned wife and as loving mother, the audience was presented with the first complete revelation of inner conflict in world literature."