1. What has Jason done wrong?
“As for Medea, that poor lady, in her disgrace, cries out, REPEATING HIS OATHS, recalling the great trust in THAT RIGHT HAND WITH WHICH HE PLEDGED HIS LOVE. She calls out to the gods to witness how Jason is repaying her favours.”

2. Medea is simply the “Helper Maiden,” but not heroic in her own right
“In my view, you overestimate your favours to me. I consider goddess Aphrodite the only one of gods or mortal men who saved my expedition. As for you, well, you've a subtle mind. But if I told how Eros with his unerring arrows forced you to save me, I could injure you. (lines )
Jason’s Account
Medea is simply the “Helper Maiden,” but not heroic in her own right

3. Partnership of Medea & Jason
Jason is an oath breaker (581-85): violates a promise witnessed by the Gods
Jason and Medea joining their right hands (dextrarum junctio), a gesture symbolizing marriage.
Luni marble, Roman sarcophagus from the late 2nd century AD.

4. Not Only Medea – Jason has many helpers!
Fairytale Pattern: “The Extraordinary Companions,” type 513.
Each has a special skill & a task to perform.

5. Jason’s Marriage to Medea
Jason sees this as no true marriage. Medea is a barbarian – in the 5th century, the only valid marriages were between citizens of the same city! Jason did more for Medea than she did for him: he brought her to a civilized land, Greece, where justice rules (635-36). But does Medea have any legal recourse in her present situation?

6. Jason’s marriage of advantage: marrying the boss’s daughter-is this heroic?
Get this straight— this royal bride I have, I didn't marry her because of any woman. As I told you, I wanted to save you and have children, royal princes, with the same blood as my sons. That way my house has more security. (line )
Medea rejects Jason’s statement that he is remarrying for the benefit of his family, and she rejects any offer of help from him outright: “I'll accept no assistance from your friends, nor anything from you.” line

7. Medea’s verbal debates
Greek drama frequently portrays verbal battles between two characters, each fighting for their position
The episodes cast Medea against Jason twice, against Creon, and Aegeus. Medea is angry in her first confrontation with Jason, appeasing in the second.
Medea manipulates the men – is this her true sorcery?

8. Do you think if there was no advantage to be gained
Do you think if there was no advantage to be gained? If I didn’t have some plan in mind, I’d not have talked to him or grabbed his hand. But the man’s become completely foolish— when he had the power to prevent me from planning anything, by sending me out of his land, he let me stay one day, a day when I’ll turn three of my enemies to corpses—father, daughter, and my husband. (lines )
Medea takes the posture of a suppliant, getting down knees before the king ( ) and grabbing hold of his hand (line 403).

9. The chorus: Medea’s unwitting accomplices
The Chorus in this play is a group of the local women of Corinth, Medea’s neighbors. When they arrive on the scene and question the nurse about Medea, they reveal their sympathy for her: “I find no pleasure in this house's suffering. We've been friends.” (lines ).
Medea asks the chorus to be silent if she can find some way to get revenge on Jason and his new wife and father-in-law (lines ).

10. The Ethics of Medea’s revenge
The chorus agrees and even approves of her request: “For you are right to pay back your husband.” (lines ).
The Greek ethic was not to turn the other cheek – this is a Christian notion. When Medea later states that she is “dangerous to enemies, but well disposed to friends” (lines ) we could expect the ancient audience to see this statement as a positive quality, rather than a negative one, and it is a quality shared by the male heroes of Greek myth.
The nurse has expressed earlier in the play the wish that Medea’s anger may fall on her enemies (line 120), rather than on friends – the irony is that in Medea’s case, her husband is now her enemy, and it will be her closest friends & her children who will suffer the most.

11. Medea & Aegeus
The plot hinges around the appearance of Aegeus, the king of Athens.

12. Medea’s revenge
Aegeus gives Medea the last element for her revenge plot: an escape. She is not suicidal, but she wants to live to enjoy her enemies’ defeat (lines ). It is only at this time that we learn her full plans (lines ). Her chosen targets will include not only Creon and his daughter, but Jason’s (and her own) sons, rather than Jason as in the original plan. She will use the children as the agents of her poisoned gifts. Once they have carried out this task, they will be Medea’s next victims (line ).

13. Lines 1017-1146 Episode IV (866-975) — Jason and Medea
The Gifts
Louvre CA 2193 (IGD 111.3, 35)
Lucanian Bell-Krater
Dolon Painter
c BC

14. Medea’s Debate with herself
Medea first states that she will kill her children so that Jason will be left childless (lines ) but she notes that she herself will suffer twice his pain (lines ).
She states that they might be murdered by others seeking revenge for the deaths of Creon and his daughter (lines & ), so if their deaths are unavoidable, it would be better if she killed them herself (lines ).

15. Medea’s Revenge: a mother who kills her own children
The Invention of Euripides?
In some early versions Medea was a goddess & the killing was an attempt to make her children immortal.
In other versions the children of Medea were murdered by the people of Corinth to get revenge after Medea killed their king

16. Medea’s triumphant exit: Medea as the Deus ex Machina
Medea: The gods and I, with my worst intentions,
have brought about this situation (line 1190).
Chorus: For the gods send down onto the houses of the ones who kill sorrows to match their crimes (1505)
Medea’s triumphant exit: Medea as the Deus ex Machina

17. Euripides leaves us with a troubling end to the drama: a message of divine approval for Medea’s actions?

18. Setting for Euripides’ Medea: Corinth
Temple of Hera Akraia at Perachora: Built by Medea when she was queen of Corinth? Gossip in Athens reported that Euripides took a bribe from the Corinthians to make Medea the killer of her own children.
At the end of Euripides’ Medea Medea refuses to give the bodies of their dead children to Jason. She has other plans for them:
My own hands will bury them. I'll take them to Hera's sacred lands in Acraia, so no enemy of mine will commit sacrilege against them by tearing up their graves.

19. Jason vs. Heracles Shared characteristics Escapes death as a child
Cheated of his birthright as king
Goes on a quest
Is aided by the gods
Womanizer
Has an unhappy end at the hands of his wife
Differences
Is the leader of an expedition
Influenced by women, takes their aid
Is abandoned by the gods
A man whose anger is feared and respected

20. Medea vs. Heracles Shared characteristics Divine Ancestry
Exceptional in all ways, figure of extremes
Overcomes monsters
Terrifying in her anger, not to be crossed
Murders members of her own family – the worst of all crimes for the Greeks
Is championed by the gods
Is given special treatment after death
Differences
Greek vs. Foreign
Males vs. Female

21. Hero’s Quest: Recovery of a Quest Object
PATTERN:
JASON
PERSEUS
Object sought & its magical property
 Golden Fleece (marker of kingship)
 Gorgon’s head (petrifying weapon)
Journey to the ends of the earth: method of travel
 Boat: the Argo
 Winged sandals
Magical Assistance
 Magic Boat & Medea’s magic
 Magical tools: bag, cap, etc
Divine Assistance
Hera & Aphrodite (earlier, Athena)
Aid of Athena (and others)
Obstacles overcome
 Sirens, Harpies, the clashing Rocks
 Gorgon sisters, sea serpent
Companions
 Argonauts
 None

22. PATTERN:
JASON
PERSEUS
HERCULES
Hero narrowly escapes death as a child
 Uncle Pelias
 Grandfather Akrisios
 Hera
Hero must reclaim his birthright
 Throne of Iolkos
 Kingdom of Argos/Mycenae/Tiryns
Hero is an orphan, raised in isolation, set apart from society
 Centaur Chiron
 Raised by fisherman on island of Seriphos
 Centaur Chiron (in later versions)
Hero overcomes a dragon
 Guardian of Golden Fleece
 Medusa, Sea Serpent
 Many
Hero wins a princess
 Medea
 Andromeda
Hero overcomes death
 Swallowed by dragon (only in early art)
 The Gorgon is a figure of death
 Travels to Underworld, wrestles death, etc.
Hero lives unhappily ever after & meets a mysterious or humiliating death
 Medea kills his children, prow of Argo strikes him on the head
 Turns himself to stone with Gorgon’s head
 Murdered by his own wife (accident?)