Way back in the day, I was at a movie theatre watching a movie, and it was a really weird movie. I had no idea what was going on throughout the entire film. People were just getting up and walking out. At the end of the movie, someone explained it to me, and I thought, “Wow! That’s so interesting! But they really should have handed out a pamphlet before the beginning of the movie to explain it.” That exactly describes my feelings about this play. It was written in 431 B.C. Before diving in, I re...

“Stronger than lover's love is lover's hate. Incurable, in each, the wounds they make.” Euripides writes a masterpiece of love, betrayal and revenge. The theme of Medea is the extravagant hatred, for the once bewildering love of the heroine for Jason was transformed when he repudiates her to marry another. Medea had given up everything for the man she was led by the Gods to love above even herself. She saved him from certain death, she left the safety of her kingdom, she even killed her own b

Medea, with her suffering, her hatred, her cruelty, has been present this week in my life. Her myth living in various guises of representation. And all engaged me in various degrees and manner. It all started on Monday when, touring the Thyssen Musem in the search of paintings which had to do with the idea of ‘Travel”, I stopped to admire this painting, The Argonauts Leaving Colchis, by Ercole de Roberti (ca 1480). This depicts the earlier part of the Myth – the adventure in Colchis, The Voyage

I wish Shakespeare had written a play where the Macbeths got divorced. You'd love to see what Lady Macbeth would have to say about it, right? The thing with marrying an asshole is, divorcing them isn't going to be pretty.Here's the ugliest breakup in history, the most famous play by the nastiest Greek playwright, the sly and vicious Euripides. The plot is, Jason of the Argonauts, this guy:has married an asshole. It was a good idea at the time: Medea slew an actual dragon for him, and who doesn't...

Medea is a play about society, and how it deals with people who do not fit into the dominant cultural code. It is about power, marriage, betrayal, hate and revenge as well, but the most important aspect is the typical fate of a strong and intelligent woman, following her husband to his home country. She is treated as an intruder and danger to society, mainly because she is different, and knows things other people do not want to see. She is the witch that narrowminded provincial men like to hunt...

“I understand too well the dreadful actI'm going to commit, but my judgementcan't check my anger, and that incitesthe greatest evils human beings do.” - Medea about to Kill her Children, Eugène Delacroix (1838.) As terrible as Medea’s actions are at the end of the play, I can’t help but feel sorry for her (at least is some small way.) She murders her own children, but she was pushed to the brink of despair as the knife was placed in her hand by her own husband. And Euripides plays on this dyn

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.Although this was first written by William Congreve in 1697 (not the Bible) the distant origins of the sentiment is frozen in human memory; but its earliest dramatic expression may have originated with Euripides. I think he just gave it words; the instinct of some women to be vindictive carriers of hellish wrath is innate. I have handled more than a few divorces where all parties involved – both attorneys and the husband – stood in open mouthed shock and am...

Mήδεια = Medea (play), EuripidesMedea is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides, based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on the actions of Medea, a former princess of the "barbarian" kingdom of Colchis, and the wife of Jason; she finds her position in the Greek world threatened as Jason leaves her for a Greek princess of Corinth. Medea takes vengeance on Jason by murdering Jason's new wife as well as her own children, after which she escapes t...

I found Euripides' "Medea" text relatively easy to read for an ancient Greek tragedy. I must say that the writing and the place of the women's choir help us.Medea, when Jason landed to conquer the Golden Fleece, left everything to follow him. She has resorted to the worst stratagems, her betrayal, to allow the triumph's hero over his trials. Jason took her as his wife and took her on his escape to thank her. They had two children. But the fairy tale quickly turns to drama. And this is what told

Gracious, hell hath no fury. While tunneling through Ovid's Metamorphoses, I've been coming across a lot of familiar stories from childhood, the ones that have stuck with me over the years and from which I find frequent references in popular culture (and life in general) such as this tale of a famous warrior who scorns his sorceress wife for another woman (you dumbass), the story of Medusa and Perseus, the rape and imprisonment of Persephone, etc. I have also, with wholly unchecked excitement, d...

“Gods often contradictour fondest expectations.What we anticipatedoes not come to pass.What we don't expectsome god finds a way to make it happen.So with this story”

JASON"Oh children, what a terrible mother you had."MEDEA"Oh children, how you were destroyed by your father's disease."Medea did what she had to do folks. did she girlboss a little too close to the sun ? maybe, but she's Helios' granddaughter, what did you expect ? 🙄

Rachel Cusk was invited by London’s Almeida Theatre to write a new version of Euripides’s Medea. The new play is both thoroughly modern and bears the stamp of personality of this talented novelist and memoirist. That she fiercely loves her children, two boys, is apparent. She followed Euripides’s formula, creating a storyline which places the blame differently.If you remember the story, Medea kills her sons when her unfaithful husband marries the young & well-tended daughter of Creon. Considerin...

Yes, I'm giving this classic Greek play a 5 stars because it's classic, but DAMN. This is the classic trophy wife who's constantly misused by the men in her life (view spoiler)[I removed a classic Freudian wife, alas (hide spoiler)]then laying down the LAW... all for the sake of revenge. Sweet, sweet revenge.But to think that she would go so far as to kill her own children just for the sake of it... is chilling in the extreme.The furies definitely rode this woman.Simple, classic, and clear.Oh, a...

Medea begins with a displacement, and ends with a displacement. Medea is perhaps one of the most ferocious female characters in all Greek tragedy, and I’m fascinated by her. Medea is a masterful manipulator, conniver, convincer: her stychomythia with Creon and later Aegeus each remind me of Clytemnestra’s with Agamemnon in Aeschylus’ Oresteia. She makes herself a suppliant to Aegeus, falling at his feet in honor. She kills her children out of revenge. Well, actually, her killing of her children

I have given up hope of ever seeing this play; this translation captures the bitterness that so often turns love to violent ends - fine example of Greek tragedy.

Medea is a tragedy written by one of the great tragedians of classical Athens, Euripides (the other two are Aeschylus and Sophocles).Medea’s husband, the famous Jason of the Argonauts betrays and abandons her for another woman, the princess of Corinth, no less. Which is a real douche move. If it weren’t for Medea, he would have never gotten the golden fleece in the first place. She murdered her own brother for him, and if that’s not a token of true love, I don’t know what is!She is not only aban...

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned13 February 2012 Surely, of all creatures that have life and will, we women Are the most wretched. When, for an extravagant sum, We have bought a husband, we must then accept him as Possessor of our body. This is to aggravate Wrong with worse wrong. Then the great question: will the man We get be bad or good? For woman, divorce is not Respectable; to repel the man, not possible. (Trans Phillip Veracott) These few lines near the opening of Euripides' Medea pr...

Medea isn't just about pre-feminist ideals, mental illness, revenge, or betrayal. It is a commentary on society, ostensibly Ancient Greek society, but also our global society today. Euripides does something so revolutionary and foreign that the Greek audiences used to tales of heroes or tragedies driven by men must have been flabbergasted and appalled. Medea is the first all-powerful female character. She makes Electra look like a whiny, helpless, pitiable woman. Medea shows that in ancient Gree...

Euripides writes a masterpiece of love, betrayal and revenge. Medea gives up everything for the man she falls in love with. She pulls him out of jail and certain death, she departs with him from the safety of her kingdom, she kills her own brother in order to guard her lover and at the end he abandons her for another younger woman. Medea poisons this woman and kills her children to take revenge. The mother chooses to sacrifice her own children to ease the pain of unfaithfulness. The last scene o...

Part of BBC’s “100 Stories that shaped the World” list, I thought it would be fun to keep track of all the works I have read that are listed.I have been feeling kind of down and blue since finishing my term paper (go figure) and thought a Greek tragedy would afford me some perspective. It didn’t fail. It has been a while since I last read a play, let alone a Greek play, but I am still surprised how much I enjoyed it; I even smiled a few times. Euripides’ writing and the dialogue he creates for M...

tbf tho jason was a dick

Voices of women ringing out. Not only do they have good speeches but their experience is the subject, Medea does not passively sit back and accept the injustice of what has been happening to her, she is definitely not silent in the face of patriarchal injustice. When she feels aggrieved by man or men she asserts her own power, assuming she has just as much right to act in this way as any man does. When Creon wants to banish her,she assumes that she has the right to speak (as well as to act). She...

There is scholarly evidence to support the idea that Euripides was hired by the people of Corinth to write this play to make Medea into a villain: not even crazy but a purely evil woman who would (view spoiler)[kill her own children (hide spoiler)]. I did a paper on it in grad school. Of course I don't know where my paper is nor the citations but who needs references in an opinion piece? ;) I did the research after I read The Dawn Palace, a young adult novel with a feminist take on the story. (T...

Rachel Cusk!!! She goes there.//Perfect way to turn this ancient soap opera into a modern soap opera, equally bitter and venomous.

completely understandable actually

Pre-review: Why is this that one play I never manage to write a review on even though I read it about three times and loved it the same? Life is full of mysteries.Okay, this translation is so modern and quotable, praise to the translator. Medea is more striking the second time around, I forgot how Euripides plays with his readers and morality; review to come.

This review is of the translation by Georgia Ann Machemer & Michael Collier.Hate is a bottomless cup; I will pour and pour.Obviously I love Medea—justice for Medea and I will die on this hill—and this, the story of the world's worst divorce.Medea is awesome. She falls in love with Jason, kills a dragon for him, kills her own brother(s) for him, abandons her homeland and remaining family for him... only for him to get engaged to some Corinthian princess whose hand in marriage would be way more po...

I may not win, but you'll lose--or I'll just win.Medea is not a woman to be trifled with, and that's precisely what Jason did. The context of Medea's identity is critical to understanding this play, and definitely something I did not have when I first read it age 13. Euripides list Medea as daughter of Aietes the King of Colchis, not terribly helpful if you don't know that she is not Greek--though you'll learn this during the play when Jason insinuates, nay, says that he took her from the barbar...

I read this for my Ancient History class. I was going to give a oral presentation on Greek Theatre and one of the great playwrights of that time Euripides and even though he really wasn't recognised as a good playwright back then, he is now remembered as one of the best playwrights from that time. Medea is about a woman who kills her two children to get revenge on her husband, because he left her for a younger woman. That's basically the gist of the play. But damn is it an amazing play.The monol...