The Vengeance of Medea
"The Vengeance of Medea" centers on the tragic figure of Medea, a Colchian princess who faces betrayal by her husband Jason, the former leader of the Argonauts. Set in ancient Corinth, the narrative explores themes of love, vengeance, and the plight of women in a patriarchal society. After being abandoned by Jason for Glauce, the daughter of King Creon, Medea is consumed by grief and rage, which lead her to plot a brutal revenge. She ultimately kills Glauce with a cursed robe and gold headdress, causing both her death and that of Creon, who tries to save her. In a heart-wrenching climax, Medea also murders her two sons to spare them from a life of suffering and abandonment, before escaping to Athens in a chariot.
The story, famously rendered by the playwright Euripides in his 431 BCE play "Medea," has evolved from one that depicted her as a mere sorceress to a more complex character, highlighting her as a victim of societal injustices. The play critiques societal norms regarding marriage and the treatment of women, with Medea's actions often interpreted through feminist lenses as well as darker psychological perspectives, leading to discussions about the "Medea syndrome."
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The Vengeance of Medea
Author: Euripides
Time Period: 999 BCE–1 BCE
Country or Culture: Greece
Genre: Myth
PLOT SUMMARY
In the Greek city of Corinth, the Colchian princess Medea is mourning her abandonment by Jason, the former leader of the Argonauts, and his subsequent marriage to King Creon’s daughter, Glauce. While full of self-pity over the rejection, Medea is also actively plotting her revenge. Having previously killed her brother, she has a taste for more bloodshed.
Believing Medea to be an emotionally unstable sorceress, Creon announces that he is banishing her and her two sons from Corinth to protect himself and the newlywed couple from her wrath. A life in exile means that she and her children will face either homelessness or slavery, as she cannot return home to the father and homeland she spurned to marry Jason. She pleads with the king to let her stay just one more day, and he reluctantly complies, although when he is out of sight she announces her plans for murderous revenge.
Jason offers Medea money so that she will not be penniless; he otherwise remains heartless toward her plight. Medea lashes out at him for his repulsive behavior, reminding him of the deeds she committed on his behalf: she slew the dragon that protected the Golden Fleece and thus saved his life, allowing him to fulfill his mission, return to Iolcus, and claim his inheritance to the throne of his uncle Pelias. She was also responsible for encouraging the daughters of Pelias to kill their father so that Jason could take power. She also reminds him that she fulfilled their marriage contract by bearing two sons and that he is breaking sacred oaths by leaving her. Jason counters that all of these deeds were not the work of her hands but the work of the gods and further claims that her love for him was also dictated by the gods.
As Medea’s anger continues to fester, she is visited by Aegeus, the king of Athens. He tells her about his unhappy, childless marriage, and Medea promises to help him bring children into the world with her magic potions. In exchange, he must promise to provide her with a safe home in Athens and to neither turn her over to her enemies nor cast her out no matter what she does.
Medea then carries through with her plan to kill Glauce, giving the princess a poisonous robe and gold headdress. After the young bride dons the items, the crown lights her hair and scalp on fire while the robe begins to eat through her skin, and neither can be removed. When King Creon attempts to remove the garments, he too succumbs to their poison.
Finally, Medea kills her two children with a sword, claiming that she must do so because they have no father, home, or future. As Jason discovers the gruesome act, Medea escapes with the bodies of her children in a chariot, headed safely toward Athens.
SIGNIFICANCE
The myth about the vengeance of Medea is the subject of the Greek playwright Euripides’s play Medea, first performed in 431 BCE. Euripides and his fellow Greeks were well aware of the details of the myth, as it formed part of the well-known mythological history of Jason and the Argonauts. Prior to the writing of Medea, however, the betrayed princess was typically viewed as a wicked sorceress and a weak, irrational, and selfish mother. Euripides, however, portrays her as a more sympathetic victim in his play, which debuted at the annual Dionysia festival in Athens.
The motives for Euripides’s sensitive treatment are clearly stated by Medea, who was once a princess and sacrificed everything for Jason. She protests the patriarchal society that allows husbands to divorce their wives at whim but prohibits women from doing the same. She complains about how women must give up their bodies and their lives, only to be abandoned when their husbands decide to remarry for more power or wealth. Medea states that by killing her children, she is not only preventing them from enduring decades of suffering and pain but also committing the horrendous deed herself out of love before someone else can kill them out of hatred. In presenting the injustice of the fate of Medea in particular, Euripides calls attention to the unjust nature of a society that would doom a woman and her children to lives of slavery or homelessness.
As a female character living in a patriarchal society who plays an active role in determining her own fate, Medea has often been viewed through a feminist lens. Other interpreters read her as a wicked witch whose revenge against her husband represents an almost unimaginable and unspeakable side of human nature. Today, the term “Medea syndrome” is sometimes used to describe instances in which a woman responds to betrayal or conflict by using her children to take revenge against her partner.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bates, Alfred, ed. Greek Drama. Vol. 1. London: Athenian Soc., 1903. Print.
Euripides. Euripides’ Medea: A New Translation. Trans. Diane J. Rayor. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2013. Print.
---. Medea. Trans. E. P. Coleridge. Internet Classics Archive. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, n.d. Web. 27 June 2013.
“Medea.” The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Ed. Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996. 944–45. Print.
Schwab, Gustav. “The Story of the Argonauts.” Gods and Heroes of Ancient Greece. New York: Random, 2011. 86–142. Print.