Medea by Euripides

First produced:Mēdeia, 431 b.c.e. (English translation, 1781)

Type of work: Drama

Type of plot: Tragedy

Time of plot: Antiquity

Locale: Corinth

Principal characters

• Medea, a sorcerer
• Jason, her lover
• Creon, the king of Corinth
• Glauce, the daughter of Creon
• Aegeus, the king of Athens

The Story:

When Medea discovers that Jason has deserted her and married Glauce, the daughter of Creon, she vows a terrible vengeance. Her nurse, although she loves Medea, recognizes that a frightful threat now hangs over Corinth, for she knows that Medea will not let the insult pass without some dreadful revenge. She fears especially for Medea’s two sons, since the sorcerer includes her children in the hatred she now feels for their father.

Medea’s resentment increases still further when Creon, hearing of her vow, orders her and her children to be banished from Corinth. Slyly, with a plan already in mind, Medea persuades him to allow her just one day longer to prepare herself and her children for the journey. She already has decided the nature of her revenge; the one problem that remains is a place of refuge afterward.

Then Aegeus, the king of Athens and a longtime friend of Medea, appears in Corinth on his way home from a journey. Sympathetic with her because of Jason’s brutal desertion, he offers her a place of refuge from her enemies in his own kingdom. In this manner Medea assures herself of a refuge, even after Aegeus learns of the deeds she will soon commit in Corinth.

When the Corinthian women visit her, Medea tells them of her plan, but only after swearing them to absolute secrecy. At first she considers killing Jason, his princess, and Creon, and then fleeing with her own children. After she thinks about it, however, she feels that revenge will be sweeter with Jason living to suffer long afterward. Nothing is more painful than to grow old without a lover, without children, and without friends, and so Medea plans to kill the king, his daughter, and her own children.

She calls Jason to her and pretends that she forgives him for what he had done, recognizing at last the justice and foresight he had shown in marrying Glauce. She begs his forgiveness for her earlier rage, and asks that she be allowed to send her children with gifts for the new bride, as a sign of her repentance. Jason is completely deceived by her supposed change of heart, and expresses his pleasure at the belated wisdom she is showing.

Medea draws out a magnificent robe and a fillet of gold, presents of her grandfather, Helios, the sun god, but before she entrusts them to her children she smears them with a deadly drug. Shortly afterward, a messenger comes to Medea and tells her to flee. One part of her plan has succeeded. After Jason and the children leave, Glauce dresses herself in her wonderful robe and walks through the palace. As the warmth and moisture of her body come in contact with the drug, the fillet and gown cling to her body and sear her flesh. She tries frantically to tear them from her, but the garments only wrap more tightly around her, and she dies in a screaming agony of flames. When Creon rushes in and sees his daughter writhing on the floor, he attempts to lift her, but is himself contaminated by the poison. His death is as agonizing as hers had been.

Meanwhile. the children have returned to Medea. As she looks at them and feels their arms around her, she is torn between her love for them and her hatred of Jason, between her desire for revenge and the commands of her maternal instinct. The barbarous part of her nature—Medea being not a Greek, but a barbarian from Colchis—triumphs. After reveling in the messenger’s account of the deaths of Creon and his daughter, she enters her house with the children and bars the door. While the Corinthian women stand helplessly outside, they listen to the shrieks of the children as Medea kills them with a sword. Jason appears, frantically eager to take his children away lest they be killed by Creon’s followers for having brought the dreadful gifts. When he learns Medea had killed his children, he is almost insane with grief. As he hammers furiously on the barred doors of the house, Medea suddenly appears above, holding the bodies of her dead children, and drawn in a chariot that Helios, the sun god, had sent her. Jason alternately curses her and pleads with her for one last sight of his children as Medea taunts him with the loneliness and grief to which he is doomed. She tells him that her own sorrow will be great, but it is mitigated by the sweetness of her revenge.

The chariot, drawn by winged dragons, carries Medea first to the mountain of the goddess Hera. There she buries her children. Then she journeys to Athens, where she will spend the remainder of her days feeding on the gall and wormwood of her terrible grief and revenge.

Bibliography

Allan, William. Euripides: “Medea.” London: Duckworth, 2002. This companion to the play analyzes the myth of Medea before Euripides and how he treated this myth in his play. Places the play within the context of gender politics in ancient Athens. Allan also discusses how Medea was viewed as a barbarian, examines the moral and emotional impact of her revenge, and traces the play’s reception over the years.

Bloom, Harold, ed. Euripides: Comprehensive Research and Study Guide. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2003. Includes a biography of Euripides and a plot summary, a list of characters, and seven critical essays providing various interpretations of Medea.

Luschnig, C. A. E. Granddaughter of the Sun: A Study of Euripides’ “Medea.” Boston: Brill, 2007. Demonstrates the many facets of Medea’s personality by focusing on the positive aspects of her character, such as her intellect, successful relationships with other characters, and her roles as wife, mother, and political hero.

McDermott, Emily A. Euripides’ “Medea”: The Incarnation of Disorder. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1989. McDermott presents Medea as heroic, sympathetic, morally repugnant, and the incarnation of disorder because of her repeated assaults on family stability and her lack of adherence to the expectations of the parent-child relationship.

Morwood, James. The Plays of Euripides. Bristol, England: Bristol Classical, 2002. Morwood provides a concise overview of all of Euripides’ plays, devoting a separate chapter to each one. He demonstrates how Euripides was constantly reinventing himself in his work.

Mossman, Judith, ed. Euripides. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Collection of essays, some providing a general overview of Euripidean drama and others focusing on specific plays. Includes the essay “The Infanticide in Euripides’ Medea.”

Ohlander, Stephen. Dramatic Suspense in Euripides’ and Seneca’s “Medea.” New York: Peter Lang, 1989. Scene by scene, Ohlander explores Euripides’ sense of dramatic suspense, examining how motifs from mythic tradition are handled and how Euripides manufactures new ones.

Pucci, Pietro. The Violence of Pity in Euripides’ “Medea.” Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1980. Pucci examines the painful experience audience members suffer when exposed to the play’s violence and the ways Euripides’ language moves them from dread to contemplation of the peacefulness of their own existence.

Rabinowitz, Nancy Sorkin. Anxiety Veiled: Euripides and the Traffic in Women. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1993. Focusing on women in Athens and in tragedy, Rabinowitz explores female desire as a threat to family and the Athenian polis, interpreting Medea as a victim who, though initially sympathetic to the audience, forfeits that sympathy by indulging in a vengeance made excessive—an act for which she pays no price.