Medea (play)

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Medea (play)

Medea ( / Medeia) is an ancient Greek

Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
tragedy

Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of The arts based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific Poetic tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western culture....
play written by Euripides

Euripides

Euripides was the last of the three great tragedy of classical Athens . Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias....
, based upon the myth of Jason

Jason

Jason was a late ancient Greece Greek mythology figure, famous as the leader of the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcus....
and Medea

Medea

Medea is a woman in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of Aeetes of Colchis, niece of Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to the hero Jason, with whom she had two children: Mermeros and Pheres....
and first produced in 431 BC. The plot largely centers on the protagonist

Protagonist

A protagonist is the main Character of a drama or Narrative. The word "protagonist" derives from the Greek language p??ta????st?? , "one who plays the first part, chief actor." In the theatre of Ancient Greece, three actors played all of the main dramatic roles in a tragedy; the leading role was played by the protagonist, while the othe...
in her struggle with the world, and the revenge she brings about against her husband Jason who has betrayed her for another woman, the princess Glauce

Glauce

In Greek mythology, Glauce refers to seven different people:#Glauce, daughter of Creon. She married Jason. She was killed, along with Jason's children, by his wife, Medea....
. For this reason it is often seen as the most Sophoclean

Sophocles

Sophocles was the second of the three classical Greece tragedy whose work has survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus and earlier than those of Euripides....
of Euripides' extant plays.

Along with the plays Philoctetes
Philoctetes

In Greek mythology, Philoctetes was the son of King Poeas of Meliboea in Thessaly. He was a Greek hero, famed as an archer, and was a participant in the Trojan War....
, Dictys
Dictys

Dictys was a name attributed to four men in Greek mythology.*Dictys was a fisherman and brother of King Polydectes of Seriphos, both being the sons of Magnes by a naiad....
and Theristai, which were all entered as a group, it won the third prize (out of three) at the Dionysia

Dionysia

The Dionysia was a large religious festival in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus, the central event of which was the performance of tragedy and, since 487 BC, Greek comedy....
festival for that year.

Plot
The play tells the story of the revenge of a woman betrayed by her husband.

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Encyclopedia

Medea ( / Medeia) is an ancient Greek

Ancient Greece

Tragedy

Euripides

Jason

Medea

Protagonist

Glauce

Sophocles

Dionysia

Plot

The play tells the story of the revenge of a woman betrayed by her husband. All of the action of the play is at Corinth, where Jason has brought Medea after the adventures of the Golden Fleece

Golden Fleece

In Greek mythology, the Golden Fleece is the fleece of the winged ram Chrysomallos . It figures in the tale of Jason and his band of Argonauts, who set out on a quest for the fleece in order to place Jason rightfully on the throne of Iolcus in Thessaly....
. He has now left her to marry Glauce

Glauce

In Greek mythology, Glauce refers to seven different people:#Glauce, daughter of Creon. She married Jason. She was killed, along with Jason's children, by his wife, Medea....
, the daughter of King Creon (Not to be confused with King Creon of Thebes) (Glauce is also known in Latin works as Creusa

Creusa

In Greek mythology, four people had the name Creusa ; the name means simply "princess"....
- see Seneca the Younger

Seneca the Younger

Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Ancient Rome Stoicism philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature....
's Medea and Propertius 2.16.30). The play opens with Medea grieving over her loss and with her elderly nurse fearing what she might do to herself or her children.

Creon, also fearing what Medea might do, arrives determined to send Medea into exile. Medea pleads for one day's delay. In the next scene Jason arrives to confront her and explain himself. He believes he could not pass up the opportunity to marry a royal princess, as Medea is only a barbarian

Barbarian

"Barbarian" is a pejorative term for an uncivilized person, either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage....
woman, but hopes to someday join the two families and keep Medea as his mistress. Medea, and the chorus

Greek chorus

The Greek chorus is a group of twelve or fifteen minor actors in tragedy and twenty-four in Ancient Greek comedy plays of classical Athens....
of Corinthian women, do not believe him. She reminds him that she left her own people for him ("I am the mother of your children. Whither can I fly, since all Greece hates the barbarian?"), and that she saved him and slew the dragon.

"It is not you," answers Jason, "who once saved me, but love, and you have had from me more than you gave. I have brought you from a barbarous land to Greece, and in Greece you are esteemed for your wisdom. And without fame of what avail is treasure or even the gifts of the Muses? Moreover, it is not for love that I have promised to marry the princess, but to win wealth and power for myself and for my sons. Neither do I wish to send you away in need; take as ample a provision as you like, and I will recommend you to the care of my friends."

She refuses with scorn his base gifts, "Marry the maid if thou wilt; perchance full soon thou mayst rue thy nuptials."

Next Medea is visited by Aegeus

Aegeus

In Greek mythology, Aegeus , also Aigeus, Aegeas or Aigeas, was an archaic figure in the founding myth of Athens. The "goat-man" who gave his name to the Aegean Sea was, next to Poseidon, the father of Theseus, the founder of Athenian institutions and one of the kings of Athens....
, King of Athens

King of Athens

Before the Athenian democracy, the tyrants, and the archons, the city-state of Athens was ruled by monarch. Most of these are probably mythologyical or only semi-historical....
, who shares the prophecy that will lead to the birth of Theseus

Theseus

For other uses, see Theseus Theseus was a legendary king of Athens, son of Aethra , and fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, with whom Aethra lay in one night....
; Medea begs him to protect her, in return for her help in his wife conceiving a child. Aegeus does not know what Medea is going to do in Corinth, but promises to give her refuge in any case, provided she can escape to Athens

Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
.

Medea then returns to her plotting how she may kill Creon and Glauce. She decides to poison some golden robes (a family heirloom and gift from the sun god), in hopes that the bride will not be able to resist wearing them, and consequently be poisoned. Medea resolves to kill her own children as well, not because the children have done anything wrong, but because she feels it is the best way to hurt Jason. She calls for Jason once more, falsely apologizes to him, and sends the poisoned robes with her children as the gift-bearers.

"Forgive what I said in anger! I will yield to the decree, and only beg one favor, that my children may stay. They shall take to the princess a costly robe and a golden crown, and pray for her protection."

The request is granted and the gifts are accepted. Offstage, while Medea ponders her actions, Glauce is killed by the poisoned dress, and Creon is also killed by the poison while attempting to save her. These events are related by a messenger.

"Alas! The bride had died in horrible agony; for no sooner had she put on Medea's gifts than a devouring poison consumed her limbs as with fire, and in his endeavor to save his daughter the old father died too."

Medea is pleased, and gives a soliloquy pondering her next action:

"In vain, my children, have I brought you up,

Borne all the cares and pangs of motherhood,

And the sharp pains of childbirth undergone.

In you, alas, was treasured many a hope

Of loving sustentation in my age,

Of tender laying out when I was dead,

Such as all men might envy.

Those sweet thoughts are mine no more, for now bereft of you

I must wear out a drear and joyless life,

And you will nevermore your mother see,

Nor live as ye have done beneath her eye.

Alas, my sons, why do you gaze on me,

Why smile upon your mother that last smile?

Ah me! What shall I do? My purpose melts

Beneath the bright looks of my little ones.

I cannot do it. Farewell, my resolve,

I will bear off my children from this land.

Why should I seek to wring their father's heart,

When that same act will doubly wring my own?

I will not do it. Farewell, my resolve.

What has come o'er me? Shall I let my foes

Triumph, that I may let my friends go free?

I'll brace me to the deed. Base that I was

To let a thought of wickedness cross my soul.

Children, go home. Whoso accounts it wrong

To be attendant at my sacrifice,

Let him stand off; my purpose is unchanged.

Forego my resolutions, O my soul,

Force not the parent's hand to slay the child.

Their presence where we will go will gladden thee.

By the avengers that in Hades

Hades

Hades refers both to the ancient Greek underworld, the abode of Hades, and to the god of the underworld. Hades in Homer referred just to the god; the genitive case , Haidou, was an elision to denote locality: "[the house/dominion] of Hades"....
reign,

It never shall be said that I have left

My children for my foes to trample on.

It is decreed."

She rushes offstage with a knife to kill her children. As the chorus laments her decision, the children are heard screaming. Jason rushes to the scene to punish her for the murder of Glauce and learns that his children too have been killed. Medea then appears above the stage in the chariot of the sun god Helios
Helios

Helios is the god of sun.In Greek mythology the sun was personified as Helios . Homer often calls him simply Titan or Hyperion , while Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn separate him as a son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia or Euryphaessa and brother of the goddesses Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn....
; this was probably accomplished using the mechane

Mechane

A mechane or machine was a crane used in History of theater#Ancient Greek Theater, especially in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Made of wooden beams and pulley systems, the device was used to lift an actor into the air, usually representing flight....
device usually reserved for the appearance of a god or goddess. She confronts Jason, reveling in his pain at being unable to ever hold his children again:

"I do not leave my children's bodies with thee; I take them with me that I may bury them in Hera

Hera

In the Twelve Olympians of classical Greek Mythology, Hera or Here was the wife and older sister of Zeus. Her chief function was as goddess of women and marriage....
's precinct. And for thee, who didst me all that evil, I prophesy an evil doom."

She escapes to Athens with the bodies. The chorus is left contemplating the will of Zeus
Zeus

Zeus in Greek mythology is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky father and List of thunder gods. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull , and oak....
in Medea's actions:

Manifold are thy shapings, Providence
Divine Providence

In theology, Divine Providence, or simply Providence, is the sovereignty, superintendence, or agency of God over events in people's lives and throughout history....
!
Many a hopeless matter gods arrange.
What we expected never came to pass,
What we did not expect the gods brought to bear;
So have things gone, this whole experience through!"

Themes

In the Medea, Euripides shows the inner emotions of passion, love
Love

Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection and attachment . The word wikt:en:love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure to intense interpersonal attraction....
, and vengeance
Vengeance

Vengeance may refer to:In publications:*Vengeance , a character in the 1859 novel by Charles Dickens*Vengeance , by Scott Ciencin and Dan Jolley...
. The play is sometimes seen as one of the first works of feminism
Feminism

Feminism is the belief that women should have equal political, social, sexual, intellectual and economic rights to men. It involves various movements, Theory, and philosophies, all concerned with issues of gender difference, that advocate equality for women and that campaign for women's rights and interests....
, and Medea is seen as a feminist heroine. Other scholars of Greek theatre have challenged the theory that Medea reflects any feminist ideologies.

Reaction

Although the play is considered one of the great plays of the Western canon
Western canon

The Western canon is a term used to denote a wiktionary:canon of Western literatures, and, more widely, European classical music and Western art history, that has been the most Power in shaping Western culture....
, the Athenian audience did not react so favourably, and awarded it only the third place prize at the Dionysia
Dionysia

The Dionysia was a large religious festival in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus, the central event of which was the performance of tragedy and, since 487 BC, Greek comedy....
festival in 431 BC. This was possibly because of Euripides' extensive changes to the conventions of Greek theatre. To have included an indecisive chorus, his criticism of Athenian society and his eventual disrespect for the gods —exhibited in Artemis
Artemis

In Greek mythology, Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the Hellenic goddess of forests and hills, child birth/virginity/fertility, the hunt and was often depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows.....
, the acclaimed goddess of light and justice, acting for the now apparently evil Medea in carrying her to King Aegeus, was to repeal the purpose of the Dionysian plays: to appreciate Grecian society and uphold the power of the gods. However, it has also been argued that Medea was awarded third place because the competition at that particular Dionysia was so fierce, not because the Athenians were in any way opposed to the play's content.

In the 4th century BC, South-Italian vase painting offers a number of Medea-representations that are connected to Euripides' play — the most famous is a krater in Munich. However, these representations always differ considerably from the plots of the play or too general ones to support any direct link to the play of Euripides - this might reflect the judgement on the play. However, the violent and powerful character of princess Medea, and her double — loving and destructive -became a standard for the later periods of antiquity and seems to have inspired numerous adaptations thus became standard for the literal classes.

With the rediscovery of the text in first-century Rome (the play was adapted by the tragedians Ennius
Ennius

Quintus Ennius was a writer during the period of the Roman Republic, and is often considered the father of Roman poetry. He was of Greeks descent....
, Lucius Accius
Lucius Accius

Lucius Accius , or Lucius Attius, was a Roman Republic tragic poet and literary scholar. The son of a freedman#Ancient Rome, Accius was born at Pisaurum in Umbria, in 170 BC....
, Ovid
Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso was a Roman Empire poet known as Ovid to the English language-speaking world, who wrote about love, seduction, and Roman mythology transformation....
, Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger

Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Ancient Rome Stoicism philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature....
and Hosidius Geta
Hosidius Geta

Hosidius Geta was a Ancient Rome playwright and was a contemporary of the Roman Christian writer Tertullian.Geta was the author of a tragedy titled Medea....
, among others), again in 16th-century Europe, and in the light of 20th century modern literary criticism
Literary criticism

Literary criticism is the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals....
, Medea has provoked differing reactions from differing critics and writers who have sought to interpret the reactions of their societies in the light of past generic assumptions; bringing a fresh interpretation to its universal themes of revenge
Revenge

Revenge is a harmful action against a person or group as a response to a wrongdoing. Although many aspects of revenge resemble the concept of justice, revenge connotes a more injurious and punishment focus as opposed to a harmonious and restorative one....
and justice
Justice

Justice is the concept of morality rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, fairness and equity."...
in an unjust society.

Modern Adaptations

Theatre

Jean Anouilh
Jean Anouilh

Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh was a France dramatist....
adapted the Medea story in his French drama, Medee, of 1946.
Robinson Jeffers
Robinson Jeffers

John Robinson Jeffers was an United States poet, known for his work about the central California coast. Most of Jeffers' poetry was written in classic narrative and Epic poetry form, but today he is also known for his short verse, and considered an icon of the environmentalism movement....
adapted Medea for a hit Broadway play in 1946.
Ben Bagley
Ben Bagley

Ben Bagley was an United States Musical Theatre and Recording industry producer.Bagley moved to New York City during the early 1950s, and at age 22 he produced his first hit, Shoestring Revue, starring Beatrice Arthur and Chita Rivera, and with songs by Charles Strouse, Lee Adams, June Carroll, and Sheldon Harnick....
's Shoestring Revue performed a musical parody Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway

Off Broadway theater is an umbrella term for a defined set of Play , musical theater or revues performed in New York City. Originally referring to the location of a venue and its productions on a street intersecting Broadway in Manhattan's Theatre District, New York, the hub of the theater industry in the United States, the term later becam...
in the 1950s which was later issued on an LP and a CD
Compact Disc

A Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store Data , originally developed for storing digital audio. The CD, available on the market since October 1982, remains the standard physical medium for sale of commercial Sound recording and reproduction to the present day....
, and was revived in 1995. The same plot points take place, but the parody of "Medea in Disneyland" is that it's happening in a Walt Disney
Walt Disney

Walter Elias Disney was a multiple Academy Award-winning American film producer, film director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur and philanthropist....
animated cartoon.
A 1993 dance-theatre retelling of the Medea myth was produced by "Edafos Dance Theatre", directed by avant-garde stage director and choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou
Dimitris Papaioannou

Dimitris Papaioannou is a Greece avant-garde theatre director, choreography and visual arts who drew international media attention and acclaim with his creative direction of the 2004 Summer Olympics opening ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics....
.
John Fisher
John Fisher

John Cardinal Fisher , from 1935 Saint John Fisher, was an English people Roman Catholic bishop, cardinal and martyr. He shares his feast day with Thomas More on 22 June in the Roman Catholic calendar of saints and 6 July on the Calendar of saints ....
wrote a campy musical version of Medea entitled Medea the Musical which gave privilege to the gay culture. The production was first staged in 1998.
Neil Labute
Neil LaBute

Neil N. LaBute is an United States film director, screenwriter and playwright....
wrote Medea Redux a modern retelling, first performed in 1999 staring Calista Flockhart
Calista Flockhart

Calista Kay Flockhart is an United States actress, primarily on television. She is best known for playing the Ally McBeal of Ally McBeal ....
as part of his one act series entitled Bash. In this version the main character is seduced by her middle school teacher. He abandons her, and she kills their child out of revenge.
Michael John LaChuisa, 1999 - musical adaptation work for Audra McDonald entitled Maire Christine. McDonald portrayed the title role and the show was set in New Orleans and Chicago respectively in 1899.
Tom Lanoye
Tom Lanoye

Tom Lanoye [lan-WA] is a Belgium novelist and poet who works in Antwerp and Cape Town . He is the most influential and best-known Flemish writer of his generation, and won numerous literary prizes, both in The Netherlands and in Flanders....
(2001) used the myth of Medea to bring up modern problems (migration, man vs. woman) which results in a modernised version of Medea. His version also aims to analyse the love that develops from passion at the beginning to problems in the marriage and the "final hour" of the love between Jason and Medea.
Peter Stein
Peter Stein

Peter Stein is a critically-acclaimed Germany theatre and opera Theatre director who established himself at the Schaub?hne, a company that he brought to the forefront of German theatre....
directed Medea in Epidaurus 2005.
Irish Playwright Marina Carr's By the Bog of Cats is a modern re-telling of Euripides' Medea
Incorporated with musical verse, the play was re-written by Yasmine Gad and Shahd Al-Shemmari and performed in Kuwait University, Faculty of Arts in 2008. Centering around a feminist reading of Euripides' play, the writers exposed Medea's struggle in light of the injustices inflicted upon her.

Film

Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini

Pier Paolo Pasolini was an Italy poet, intellectual, film director, and writer. Pasolini distinguished himself as a journalist, philosopher, linguist, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, newspaper and magazine columnist, actor, Painting and political figure....
's 1970 film Medea
Medea (film)

Medea is a film by Pier Paolo Pasolini based on the plot of Euripides' Medea . It stars the famous opera singer Maria Callas in her only film role; however, she does not sing in the movie....
is loosely based on Euripides' play.

Television

Lars Von Trier
Lars von Trier

Lars von Trier is an Academy Award-nominated Denmark film director and screenwriter. He is closely associated with the Dogme 95 collective, although his own films have taken a variety of different approaches....
also did a version for television in 1988.
Theo van Gogh
Theo van Gogh (film director)

Theodoor "Theo" van Gogh was a Netherlands Film director, Film producer, Columnist, Author and Actor. He was the great-grandson of Theo van Gogh , the brother of painter Vincent van Gogh....
directed a miniseries version in 2005.

Translations

Edward P. Coleridge, 1891 - prose:
Woodhull
Woodhull

Woodhull may refer to:Organizations* Woodhull Freedom Foundation & Federation* Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center, Brooklyn, New York...
, 1908 - verse
Gilbert Murray
Gilbert Murray

George Gilbert Aim? Murray was a United Kingdom classical scholar and public intellectual, with connections in many spheres. He was an outstanding scholar of the language and culture of Ancient Greece, perhaps the leading authority in the first half of the twentieth century....
, 1912 - verse:
Arthur S. Way
Arthur S. Way

Arthur Sanders Way was an English people classical scholar and poet, born at Dorking. He was educated at Kingswood School, Bath, Somerset, and at Queen's College , Melbourne, where he was afterward fellow....
, 1912 - verse
Augustus T. Murray, 1931 - prose
R. C. Trevelyan
R. C. Trevelyan

Robert Calverly Trevelyan was an English poet and translator, of a traditionalist sort, and a follower of the lapidary style of Logan Pearsall Smith....
, 1939 - verse
Rex Warner
Rex Warner

Rex Warner was an England classics, writer and translation. He is now probably best remembered for The Aerodrome , an allegory novel whose young hero is faced with the disintegration of his certainties about his loved ones and with a choice between the earthy, animalistic life of his home village and the pure, efficient, emotionally det...
, 1944 - verse
Philip Vellacott, 1963
J. Davie, 1996
James Morwood, 1997 - prose
Paul Roche, 1998 - verse
George Theodoridis, 2004 - prose: