Medea

1
Medea

• Major Themes

2
Passion and Rage

• Medea woman of extreme behavior and emotion
• Her passionate love for Jason pushed her to
  murder her brother and to cause the murder of
  Pelias by his daughters.
• Her hateful rage against Jason, when he betrays
  her, now pushes her to the most heinous of crimes
  for a mother.to murder her own children.

3
Greeks

• Very interested in the extremes of emotion and
  the consequences of leaving emotion unchecked
• This was believed to be a major characteristic of
  greatness however, Medea takes her passion too
  far, in both directions. She chooses both over
  mercy and/or reason.

4
Revenge

• Humanity oftentimes fantasizes about the
  satisfaction of a perfect revenge. Like the
  Chorus, the reader watches Medea with a mixture
  of horror and excitement. We want to get even
  with our enemies at all cost. Agree or disagree?
  What does this say about us as a society?
• Medea sacrifices everything to have her revenge.
• Murders her children paradoxically to protect
  them from her enemies (their revenge for killing
  Creon and his daughter).
• Kills them to hurt Jason but this dooms her to
  a life of remorse and grief. ( Not sure that I
  believe this)

5
Greatness and Pride

• Greeks were fascinated by the thin line between
  greatness and hubris.
• Hubris or hybris (Greek ?ß???), according to its
  modern usage, is exaggerated self pride or
  self-confidence (overbearing pride), often
  resulting in fatal retribution. In Ancient
  Greece, "hubris" referred to actions taken in
  order to shame the victim, thereby making oneself
  seem superior.
• Tragic hero characteristic. Hero/Heroine is
  considered great among his/her peers however,
  the flaw of pride brings about his/her
  destruction. Does this fit both Medea and Jason?
  Where?
• Pride goes before the fall

6
Medea as a Heroine

• Euripides distorts and dislocates traits that
  would show her to be a great heroine.
• Her greatness of intellect and self-absorption in
  this case make her a monster.
• Pride is connected to greatness. It is also
  distorted.
• Medeas pride drives her to unnecessarily brutal
  action. There is a sense of waste. She fully
  exacts her revenge by killing Jasons bride and
  her father however, she goes too far when she
  murders her children.
• Her pride is damaged when she is condescended to
  because she is a woman AND a barbarian. Her
  intelligence wont let her be ridiculed by the
  Greeks who she sees as fools.

7
Women

• Euripides was fascinated by women and the
  hypocrisies of the Greek sex-gender system
• Greek society functions through injustice
• Athens prided itself as a place more free than
  the neighboring dictatorships however, it
  depended on slave labor and the oppression of
  women.
• Many societies were more generous in their
  treatment of women than the Greeks were many
  societies functioned without slave labor.

8
Medea and Women

• Not a feminist role model
• Not a story of female liberation, but a war
  between the sexes in which all emerge scarred.
• Real women who have suffered and become twisted
  by their suffering.

9
The Other

• Medeas foreignness distant and exotic land
• Comprises the foreign, the exotic, the unknown,
  the feared.
• Essential for self-definition
• Barbarians are savage Greeks are not
• Barbarians are superstitious Greeks are rational

10
Exile

• Fate as horrible as death
• Persons city-state was home and protector
• Medea has made herself an exileshe has no family
  or friends to protect her.
• Medeas actions regarding the killing of Pelias
  has made Jason an exile as well.
• Jasons attempt to provide security for his
  family is the marriage to Creons daughter.
• Medea is exiled in two-fold.
• Woman leaving home living with strangers
• She is a foreigner therefore, she will always
  be a barbarian.

11
Cleverness

• Euripides emphasizes Medeas cunning and
  cleverness. Causes suffering for Medea.
• Medeas intellect and strength of will exceed her
  station. Greeks have some respect for her but
  treat her smugly because of her sex and her
  barbarian origins.
• Social power and respect are theirs
• Unscrupulously clever women are distasteful
• Despised for talents that should win her praise
• Terrifyingly free
• Behaves without restraint or morality
• Uses her intellect for revenge

12
Manipulation

• Jason used Medea in the past now the royal
  family of Corinth to secure his own ends.
• Creon made match between his daughter and Jason
  benefit from Jasons fame as the hero of the
  Golden Fleece.
• Medea Master of manipulation plays on
  weaknesses and needs of enemies and friends.
• Creon pity underestimation of Medeas power
• Aegeus soft heartedness need for children
• Jason his shallowness his unmerited pride his
  desire for dominance. Lack of astuteness and
  willingness to be duped by his own fantasies.
• Fawning and submissive woman

13
Jason and Medea

• King Aeetes, Lord of Colchis and father of Medea,
  kept the Golden Fleece
• With the help of Aphrodite, Medea becomes
  passionately in love with Jason. She will help
  him with anything that he wants.
• Medea kills the giant serpent her brother,
  tossing his cut-up body pieces in the ocean.
  Father stopped to pick up the pieces.
• Return to Iolcus Jasons father dead Pelias is
  the usurper to the thrown. Medea convinces
  Pelias daughters that she knew a way to restore
  their fathers youth. Kill him, cut into pieces
  and then with her magic, he would come back to
  life. They killed him Medea tells them the
  truth Jason and Medea must flee from his home.
• Settle in Corinth.