Editing Medea (section)

==''Personae'' of Medea<!--'Medea (Seneca)' redirects here-->==
[[File:Eugène Ferdinand Victor Delacroix 031.jpg|thumb|''Medea About to Murder Her Children'' by [[Eugène Ferdinand Victor Delacroix]] (1862)|left|272x272px]]

In Euripides's play ''Medea,'' she is a woman scorned, rejected by her husband Jason and revenge seeking. Deborah Boedeker writes about different images and symbolism Euripides used in his play to evoke responses from his original Athenian audience.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Boedeker|first=Deborah|title=Medea: Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy, and Art.|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1997|location=Princeton, NJ.|pages=127–148}}</ref> The Nurse, one of the characters, gives descriptions of Medea in the prologue, highlighting comparisons to great forces of nature and different animals. There are also many nautical references throughout the play either used by other characters when describing Medea or by Medea herself. By including these references, Boedeker argues that these comparisons were used to create connections to the type of woman Medea was. She holds great power (referred to by the comparisons to forces of nature), she relies on her basic animal-like instincts and emotions (connections to different animals like bulls and lions), and it draws the audience back to her original myth of Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece and the sea voyage taken by Jason, Medea, and the Argonauts.

Emma Griffiths adds to the analysis of Medea's character in Euripides's play by discussing the male/female dichotomy created by Euripides.<ref name=":022"/> Medea does not fit into the mold of a "normal woman" according to Athenian philosophy. She is depicted as having great intelligence and skill, traits typically viewed as masculine by Euripides's original audience. On the other hand, she uses her intelligence to manipulate the men around her. This manipulation would have been a negative female trait to the Athenian audience. Griffiths also acknowledges the paradox of the methods Medea uses to kill. She poisons the princess, which would have been seen as a feminine way of murder, yet kills her children in cold blood, which is seen as more masculine. Medea is also shown as a 'normal' Athenian mother by having a dialogue about her children and showing a strong maternal love and connection to them. Yet at the end of the play, she is able to kill her children as part of her revenge. It is through these opposites that Euripides creates a complicated character for his protagonist.

[[Marianne McDonald]] argues that "Medea's anger turns to violent action, which can make her into a symbol of freedom, and emblem for the colonized turning the tables on the colonizer. Euripides, more than all other tragedians, has predicted many of the horrors that occur in the modern world, showing both the glory and the monstrosity of the oppressed turned oppressor."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Clauss|first=James J.|title=Medea: Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy, and Art.|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1997|location=Princeton, NJ.|pages=304}}</ref>

Although not the first depiction of Medea, the ''Argonautica'' by Apollonius of Rhodes gives a fuller description of events that lead up to Euripides's play, mainly surrounding Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece. In this literary work, Medea is presented not as a powerful woman seeking justice, but as a young woman who is desperately in love with Jason. So much in love that she decides to defy her father and kill her brother in order to help him. [[James J. Clauss]] writes about this Medea, attempting to unearth another version of this character for scholarship and discussion.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Clauss|first=James J.|title=Medea: Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy, and Art.|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1997|location=Princeton, NJ.|pages=149–177}}</ref> He looks into different passages in the original text to define the meaning and draw connection to the different feelings Medea was going through. He argues the feelings of Medea's initial love for Jason, the shame she feels for loving him and for going against her family, and final agreement to help Jason in his quest.

Multiple scholars{{Who|date=May 2025}} have discussed Medea's use as a "helper maiden" to Jason's quest. A helper maid is typically a young woman who helps on a hero's quest, usually out of love. Instead of being the center of the story, like she is in Euripides's ''Medea'', this version of Medea is reduced to a supporting role. Her main purpose is to help the hero with his quest. Jason would never have been successful on his quest without Medea's help, something that is pointed out and referenced many times in ancient texts and contemporary scholarly work.

Other, non-literary traditions guided the vase-painters,<ref>As on the bell krater at the Cleveland Museum of Art (91.1) discussed in detail by [[Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood]], "Medea at a Shifting Distance: Images and Euripidean tragedy", in Clauss and Johnston 1997, pp 253–96.</ref> and a localized, [[chthonic]] presence of Medea was propitiated with unrecorded emotional overtones at Corinth, at the sanctuary devoted to her slain children,<ref>Edouard Will, ''Corinth'' 1955. "By identifying Medea, Ino and Melikertes, Bellerophon, and Hellotis as pre-Olympian precursors of Hera, Poseidon, and Athena, he could give to Corinth a religious antiquity it did not otherwise possess", wrote Nancy Bookidis, "The Sanctuaries of Corinth", ''Corinth'' '''20''' (2003)</ref> or locally venerated elsewhere as a foundress of cities.<ref>"Pindar shows her prophesying the foundation of [[Cyrene, Libya|Cyrene]]; [[Herodotus]] makes her the legendary [[eponym]]ous founder of the Medes; [[Callimachus]] and [[Apollonius of Rhodes|Apollonius]] describe colonies founded by Colchians originally sent out in pursuit of her" observes Nita Krevans, "Medea as foundation heroine", in Clauss and Johnston 1997 pp 71–82 (p. 71).</ref>

=== Medea as Divine Agent ===
[[File:Medeia in Corinth by the underworld painter red figure apulian volute krater detail medea kills child on altar.jpg|thumb|300x300px|Medea preparing to kill her child on an altar, while [[Helios]], hauled by two snakes and bearing two flaming torches, witnesses the scene. Jason appears rushing from the side (detail), [[Red-figure pottery|red-figure]] krater, {{Circa|320 BC}}.]]
A mortal with divine ancestry—Medea is the granddaughter of Helios—she seems to kill without consequence, suggesting that she acts as an agent of divine force similar to [[Nemesis]] and, as-such, is immune from vengeance that typically comes to mortals who commit injustice:  
* When her own father, Aeëtes, reneges on his promise to relinquish ownership of the Golden Fleece to Jason if he completes the tasks he set Jason, he loses his son, Absyrtus.  
* When King Pelias, Jason's half-uncle, reneges on his promise to relinquish his stolen throne--the throne of Iolcus to the rightful heir, Jason--if Jason went on a quest to bring him the Golden Fleece, his own daughters are tricked into butchering him in a sabotaged attempt to restore his youth.  
* Later, when the Corinthian King, King Creon, allows Jason to woo his daughter, Glauce, despite the fact that they both know that Jason was already married to Medea--a marriage arranged by the Queen of the Gods ''and'' the goddess of marriage, Hera--both he and his daughter are both killed by an heirloom dress and crown (gifts of Helios to Medea), which had been poisoned by Medea.

After Medea kills her brother, Absyrtus, she, Jason, and the others stop at her aunt Circe's island, Aeaea, to be absolved of the crime. When they return to Iolcus, in Thessaly, Medea convinces Pelias's daughters to kill their father with trickery. After this, they are, technically, an accessory to a murder—and Pelias corrupt supporters amongst Iolcus's [[nobility|noble class]] in his own usurpation of his half-brother's throne unite to block Jason's claim to his father's throne to protect their own status—so they're forced to leave. 

They go to Corinth, where Jason proceeds to court and marry Glauce, a princess of Corinth, where Jason loses Hera's favor and gains Medea's wrath. King Creon tells Medea that she has twenty-four hours to leave, and if she doesn't she'll be killed. Jason comes to scold Medea and she in turn accuses him of denying his oath to the gods. Despite her previous crimes, Medea seems to have the approval of the gods. Next, Medea resolves her time to kill Glauce with a potion that causes her to catch fire. Her father Creon dies also when he in grief hugs his daughter and dies from the same poison. Medea proceeds to kill her and Jason's children as well, and before Jason can stop her, she is escorted away on a flying chariot sent by her grandfather, Helios. 

Later, Medea marries King Aegeus and the two produce a son named Medus. When Theseus returns in an attempt to prove he is Aegeus's son, Medea recognizes that he will be the heir to the throne rather than Medus, and convinces Aegeus to poison Theseus's drink. Aegeus realizes Theseus is his son and throws the drink away. Medea is forced to leave with Medus, where they return to Colchis where Medus eventually claims the title of king. Medea sits in an odd position where though she kills many people, she never seems to face any divine consequence from it. Perhaps her actions are in keeping with the favor of the gods. True or not, Medea is framed as a curiously nuanced figure, something rare for women in Greek mythology.<ref name="Four more" />

=== Modern references ===
In his book ''[[The Happiness Hypothesis]]'', social psychologist [[Jonathan Haidt]] quotes Medea talking about her struggle between her love to Jason and obligation to her father, as an example for the "divided Self" and the conflict between [[Id (psychology)|id]] and [[superego]]:

"I am dragged along by a strange new force. Desire and reason are pulling in different directions. I see the right way and approve it, but follow the wrong."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Haidt |first=Jonathan |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/61211244 |title=The happiness hypothesis : finding modern truth in ancient wisdom |date=2006 |isbn=0-465-02802-0 |location=New York |oclc=61211244}}</ref>