1. Euripides and Medea

2. Euripides: life  A younger contemporary of Aeschylus and Sophocles  Living through most of the cultural and political turmoil of the fifth century BCE  Seen as one of the most influential voices for the revolutionary new ideas that were developing at the time

3. Career as a tragedian  The liveliest, funniest, and most provocative tragedian of the three  A productive but only moderately successful  Wrote over 90 plays but won first prize only four times  Continued to be widely read, quoted, and enjoyed for generations after his death

4. A controversial figure  Use of colloquial language  Depictions of unheroic heroes, sexually promiscuous women, and cruel violent gods  Sympathetic to his clever heroine (Medea) and a defender of the rights and dignity of women and foreigners before an audience of Athenian male citizens

5. Literary style  Specialized in unexpected plot twists and novel approaches to his mythological material  Vision often very dark  Associated with the iconoclasm of the Sophists  Cynical realist about human nature  Put male heroes onstage in humiliated positions

6. Literary style  Depicting outspoken, lustful or violent, though often sympathetic women  Lower-class characters and slaves were prominent, and sympathetically portrayed  Often questioning the old Greek myths about the gods  The gods often seem arbitrary or cruel in their dealing with humanity

7. Medea  Focusing not on the heroic narrative of the argonauts but on its squalid aftermath  Presenting Jason in a disturbingly unheroic light: a cad who tries to talk like a Sophist  It is Medea who is the real possessor of sophia (Sophist’s skills; cleverness) in the play

8. Medea as an outsider  A woman in a male-dominated world  A foreigner or “barbarian” in a Greek city  A smart person surrounded by fools

9. Medea’s character  Fierce, like a wild lion and highly articulate in her analysis of her situation  A proto-feminist

10. The reader’s changing perceptions of the heroine  Strong & brave vs. scarily violent  Wise vs. too clever by half

11. A disturbing play  forcing readers to revise their feelings several times: --- Is Medea smart and sensible in her defense of her honor and her rights? --- Or is she driven crazy by the gods of passion? --- Or should we see her as an agent of the gods, imposing divine justice on oath-breaking humans?

12. A disturbing play  Is Euripides challenging or confirming Greek male prejudices against foreigners and women?  Is he recommending new forms of wisdom, or warning against the false cleverness of upstarts and outsiders?

13. A universal fear conveyed in the play  Pointing to the fear, felt by many people both ancient and modern, that the apparently weaker members of a community, such as women and resident aliens, may be smarter than their masters, and may, if provoked enough, rise up to destroy their oppressors.