Download Medea

Euripides
(480-406)
 Wrote 92 plays
 Characteristics of his plays:
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Represents mythical heroes as normal people
Works led the invention of comedies
Focused on inner lives and motives of characters
Wrote about women (NEVER done before)
Questioned religion of the gods
Characters confronted personal issues not just issues of the
state.
Uses Deus Ex Machina (God in the machine) to
get his characters out of trouble/play.
Reading Medea
Greeks v. Barbarians
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Greece was occupied by small city-states
and islands
No country of Greece
Who is barbarian?
Greek speakers = good
 All other speakers = bad
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Greeks were enlightened and intelligent;
all others are ignorant
Reading Medea
Gender
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Ancient Athens – well-born women stayed at
home in specially designated women’s quarters.
Marriages were arranged
Women were not citizens, could not vote, and
could not speak in assembly
Medea feels she is Jason’s equal and refuses to
be submissive
She negotiated her wedding contract
She uses rhetoric which was seen as masculine
Defies the Greek definition of a female role
model
Reading Medea
Witchcraft
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Mythology – Medea is a witch
Witches in Greek mythology used poison
and drugs
Turned to specific deities for help like
Hecate, goddess of the crossroads
Not very different from Greek religion
which employed curses, prophecy and
entrails from sacrifices
Setting
 Corinth
 In front of Medea’s house
Characters
 Nurse – Medea’s servant
 Tutor – teacher and children’s nanny
 Medea – formerly princess of Colchis, wife
of Jason
 Jason – hero and the captain of the Argo
 Aegeus – King of Athens
 Messenger
Mythology of Jason
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Son of Aeson - King of Iolcus
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Son - Jason
Pelias overthrew Aeson
Jason grew up and came back to claim the throne
Gained Hera’s favor
Sends him on a quest for the “golden fleece” to get the
throne back
Jason gets a boat, The Argo, and assembles a team of heroes
including Hercules, Castor and Pollux, etc.
Saves Phineas from the Harpies and Phineas tells him the
Golden Fleece is on Colchis
Colchis’s King Aeetus tells Jason he must perform three tasks.
Aphrodite makes King Aeetu’s daughter fall in love with Jason
and she helps him to complete the tasks and take the fleece.
Mythology of Jason – cont.
Medea gave him a potion to defeat the
dragon that guarded the golden fleece
knowing she would have to leave Colchis and
go home with Jason.
 Medea kills her own brother to help them
escape
 They arrive in Iolcus but Pelias will not give
up the throne.
 Medea tricks his daughters into killing him so
they must flee
 They end up in Corinth (a Greek city-state)
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Prologue and Parados
Beginning to pg 20, ll 219.
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9.
What background facts do we learn from the Nurse's
opening speech?
What new trouble has the Tutor heard of?
Why does the Nurse fear for Medea's children?
Why does the Nurse say she prefers not to be great?
Whom do the members of the Chorus represent?
What excuse does Euripides use to bring Medea out
in front of her house?
What role did women play in ancient Greek society?
How is Medea's situation worse than it would be if
she were a native of the city?
What promise does Medea ask for and receive from
the Chorus?
Scene 1
pg. 20, ll 220 - pg. 27, ll 471
10. What new misfortune does Creon bring
to Medea?
11. According to Medea, no sensible person
would want clever children. Why?
12. Why is Creon's love for his home and
family especially bitter to Medea?
13. What one request of Medea's does Creon
grant? Is he really being merciful?
14. What does Medea resolve to do?
15. Who was Medea's grandfather?
Scenes 2 and 3
pg. 28, ll 471 – pg. 43, ll 878
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24.
According to the Chorus, which sex is cruel and deceitful
toward the other? Why have poets said otherwise?
Whom does Jason blame for Medea's sorrow?
What has Medea done for Jason?
What justifications does Jason offer for his actions?
How do Medea and the Chorus respond to Jason's defense?
What does the Chorus say about what makes love desirable
or not desirable?
Who swears to help Medea IF she comes safely to his land?
(Why would this part get special attention from the play's
original audience?)
What terrible plan does Medea reveal to the Chorus? Why
will she do it?
Why does the Chorus praise Athens?
Scene 4
Pg. 43, ll 879 – pg 51, ll 1139
25. What
are Medea and the Chorus thinking
of in ll. 915-922? Does Jason
understand? Why are his next words
ironic? Why does Medea weep again?
26. What struggle occurs in Medea ?
27. According to the Chorus, the childless are
more fortunate than those who have
children. Why?
Scene 5
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33.
Begin on pg. 51, ll 1140
How do Medea and the audience learn about the
fate of Creon and his daughter? (Compare this
with the way we learn of Antigone’s and
Haemon’s death in Antigone.)
How is the death of Medea's children staged?
Why is Jason's speech in lines 1363-1383 ironic?
What satisfaction does Medea find in her horrible
deed? (See lines 1403.)
What final comfort does Medea refuse to allow
Jason to have?
How does the play end? Does this suggest that
the gods approve of Medea's actions?
Discussion
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2.
Is Medea a tragic hero? Explain using the
definition of a tragic hero?
How does Euripides use Deus Ex Machina
at the end of Medea? Why do you think
he chose to do this?