Euripides’ Medea is considered one of the great Greek tragedies. It is a story about a woman scorned if ever there was one. It is a story of betrayal and the lengths one will go in order to get revenge. The reader learns from the first speaker that Medea is a woman who has been cheated on by her husband Jason. The reader is introduced to Medea already seeing what kind of woman she is; she is the kind of woman who betrays her family for love, the kind that kills for love.
There are two ways the reader can justify Medea’s actions throughout the story. The first being love, or rather in Medea’s case, that love makes people do crazy things. The story begins by establishing the fact that Medea would and does kill her own brother in order to be with Jason. The nurse in the opening page says “there is no greater security than this in all the world: when a wife does not oppose her husband” and it is true, during this time in Ancient Greece if a woman had a good husband she was very lucky(16-17). Through this the connection is built for the reader that Medea would do anything to be with Jason. So when he betrays her the next connection is that Medea would do anything in order to make him pay for hurting her. The nurse goes on to say “…now there is only hatred. What should be most loved has been contaminated, stricken since Jason betrayed them….she hates her children, feels no joy in seeing them” in order to show that in contrast to how consumed with love for Jason Medea was, she is now consumed with her hatred of him.
The second way to justify her actions in the story is to say that Medea is not accountable for her actions if the Gods or Fates have influenced the course of her life and are acting through her. It is a common trope in Greek literature than people are powerless to the gods that rule them. It is shown in The Odyssey, Agamemnon, and also in Oedipus The King; fate is an unbeatable force. So if it is Medea’s destiny to repay Jason for his hurts by killing innocents then that is what must happen.
Further into the opening of the play the nurse says to Medea “…it’s better to live as an equal with equals. I never would want to be grand and majestic-just let me grow old in simple security….For mortals the middle is safest, in word and deed”(128-135). It is here that evidence suggested that life is commandeered by the gods and her husband chooses to enter unfaithfully into a relationship for political advantage, something that is not safest for those mortal men. Jason has angered the Gods, and in this manner Medea could be an instrument for executing a kind of divine or fated justice.
Euripides' Medea tells of the trials and tribulations Medea faces through supporting Jason, taking care of her family, and finding solace in her revenge. She commits barbarous acts and kills Jason’s wife, their children, anyone can agree that this is truly heinous. Yet she is not reprimanded at all, she is almost rewarded for her actions when the chariot takes her and the bodies of her children away. If not to justify her actions but to justify the inaction taken against her the reader can only assume that it was part of the gods plan in putting Jason in his place.
There are two ways the reader can justify Medea’s actions throughout the story. The first being love, or rather in Medea’s case, that love makes people do crazy things. The story begins by establishing the fact that Medea would and does kill her own brother in order to be with Jason. The nurse in the opening page says “there is no greater security than this in all the world: when a wife does not oppose her husband” and it is true, during this time in Ancient Greece if a woman had a good husband she was very lucky(16-17). Through this the connection is built for the reader that Medea would do anything to be with Jason. So when he betrays her the next connection is that Medea would do anything in order to make him pay for hurting her. The nurse goes on to say “…now there is only hatred. What should be most loved has been contaminated, stricken since Jason betrayed them….she hates her children, feels no joy in seeing them” in order to show that in contrast to how consumed with love for Jason Medea was, she is now consumed with her hatred of him.
The second way to justify her actions in the story is to say that Medea is not accountable for her actions if the Gods or Fates have influenced the course of her life and are acting through her. It is a common trope in Greek literature than people are powerless to the gods that rule them. It is shown in The Odyssey, Agamemnon, and also in Oedipus The King; fate is an unbeatable force. So if it is Medea’s destiny to repay Jason for his hurts by killing innocents then that is what must happen.
Further into the opening of the play the nurse says to Medea “…it’s better to live as an equal with equals. I never would want to be grand and majestic-just let me grow old in simple security….For mortals the middle is safest, in word and deed”(128-135). It is here that evidence suggested that life is commandeered by the gods and her husband chooses to enter unfaithfully into a relationship for political advantage, something that is not safest for those mortal men. Jason has angered the Gods, and in this manner Medea could be an instrument for executing a kind of divine or fated justice.
Euripides' Medea tells of the trials and tribulations Medea faces through supporting Jason, taking care of her family, and finding solace in her revenge. She commits barbarous acts and kills Jason’s wife, their children, anyone can agree that this is truly heinous. Yet she is not reprimanded at all, she is almost rewarded for her actions when the chariot takes her and the bodies of her children away. If not to justify her actions but to justify the inaction taken against her the reader can only assume that it was part of the gods plan in putting Jason in his place.