Reader Response: Medea by Euripides

             Medea is an ancient Greek tragedy that depicts the pain and passion of love and relationships in this case the horrific consequences of a scorned woman.  Medea was written by Euripides and was first performed in the year 431 B.C.E.  One thing that made me want to keep reading was the transformation of Medea’s feelings and character.  In the beginning Medea is feeling completely helpless and wishes death upon herself but as the story continues her feelings morph into anger and desperation.  Throughout the play my feelings shift from pity to anger and disgust as she begins unmercifully murdering others to get back at Jason.  Medea proved to be a horrific yet entertaining piece of literature that kept me interested throughout the whole story.

One thing I found odd in the text was Medea’s ability to convince Pelias’ daughters to boil him alive in order to make him immortal.  I thought about this and considered the several references to magic and witchcraft.  One reason why I think the daughters might have believed Medea was because she very persuasive and was skilled in magic so it made a little sense to me that the daughters believed her considering the circumstances.  On the other hand, I found the quarrel between Medea and Jason was easily comparable to our culture.  Their responses to each other were typical to many current breakups.  Medea was listing all the things she did for Jason and then Jason brushed it off and tried to justify his behavior by making excuses and offering her money.  At one point he responds with, “I won’t discuss this with you any further. If you’d like me to help you and the children with money for your exile, then just say so.”  I found the whole breakup situation and their arguing quite comparable and prevalent in many current relationships.

            The introduction in the text tells us some information about the author.  Euripides was well known in his time being one of the three famous Athenian tragedians whose work still survives from that time period.  He lived from 480-406 B.C.E. and wrote many plays but only won first prize for four of them.  Euripides wrote how things were and often questioned the gods and Greek myths resulting in him being quite controversial during his time. We know from the culture that it was a time for wealth and success for Athens at that time due to the defeat of the Persians.  The genre of Medea can be categorized as a Greek tragedy.

            Overall, I found the text as a disastrous love story in the ancient Greek culture.  I considered it a fairly easy read; however, I did look up the meaning of the terms strophe and antistrophe.  Strophe is defined as “the part of an ancient Greek choral ode sung by the chorus when moving from right to left.”  Antistrophe is the response to the previous strophe by the chorus.  These two terms related to the chorus of the story.  Throughout the plot, the chorus comes in and out stating their opinions on the current situations.  In some parts of the story, they sympathize with Medea and in others they strongly disagree with her actions.   

One thing I found interesting in the story of Medea was how relatable it is to our current culture.  The story begins in a state of distress with the nurse wishing things would not have happened the way they did and describing Medea’s internal turmoil.  Medea is in major suffering due to Jason leaving her for the princess of Corinth.  The nurse describes Medea’s current state, “She won’t touch food; surrendering to pain, she melts away her days in tears, ever since she learned of this injustice. She won’t raise her face; her eyes are glued to the ground. Friends talk to her, try to give her good advice; she listens the way a rock does, or an ocean wave.”  This statement describes the utter defeat and worthlessness Medea is feeling.  She is so broken by the loss and betrayal of her husband that in the end she ends up doing awful things just to get back at him.  I found this story and the description of Medea’s feelings quite comparable to modern times.  Even though this text was written so long ago I would argue little has changed in the feelings and behavior of people concerning love and relationships.  You often hear of the people doing terrible things to spouses and family members even today.  It reminded me that people are people and the play of Medea depicts that the current generation still shares very similar experiences and feelings to those in history.

Question for the class:

·         If the story went on what do you think would happen to Medea? Would the gods punish her?

·         Did you find any symbolism within the story?

·         List some comparisons of the story to modern culture.

·         List some differences to modern culture.

·         Do some research and how did divorce work in that culture? What was the process and what were the social and financial consequences for the man and the woman?    

Work Cited

"Antistrophe." Dictionary.com. Web. 23 Oct. 2014. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/antistrophe>.

Puchner, Martin. "Euripides: Medea." The Norton Anthology: World Literature. Shorter Third ed. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 525-564. Print.

"Strophe." Dictionary.com. Web. 23 Oct. 2014. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/strophe>.