Transcript Medea - UW Canvas

Medea/Medeia
Jason back in Iolcos with Medea
• Revenge for death of father Aeson (made by
Pelias to commit suicide)
• Medea’s rejuvenation of ram and trickery of
Pelias and daughters (for an extreme,
rationalizing version of this myth, cf.
Palaephatus (3rd c. BCE?) 43 (=Anthology
p.338))
• Death of Pelias
• Flight to Corinth
Medea rejuvenates old ram in cauldron. Daughters of King Pelias
Plot of Euripides’ Medea (431 BCE)
• Jason and Medea have two sons in Corinth
• Jason decides to divorce Medea and marry the princess of
Corinth (unnamed in Euripides, Glauke elsewhere), daughter
of Creon
• Medea’s destructive gifts to Glauke (theme of poisoned
clothing and gifts), Glauke and her father, Creon, die
• Medea murders her own children
• Medea escapes to Athens on a flying chariot drawn by dragon,
refuge with King Aegeus (connection with Athenian
mythology)
• NB: Euripides’ tragedy is the first source we have where
Medea deliberately kills her children
Medea kills one
of her children.
Athenian red
figure vase.
Euripides Medea
Medea’s first speech, pp. 39-41
• Impossibility of predicting quality of husband:
cf. adaptation of Hesiodic take on women and
impossibility of predicting quality of wife
Euripides Medea
Creon to Medea p. 42
• Danger of being clever, esp. a clever woman
Euripides Medea
1st choral ode p.46
• Theme of inversion, possibility of new fame
and honor for women, control of poetry and
song by men.
Euripides Medea
Debate between Medea and Jason,pp.
48-51
• P. 49 theme of not being able to tell quality of
man from outside (true gold vs. counterfeit)
• P. 51 Male (Hesiodic) fantasy of being able to
get children without females
More points to consider in Euripides’
Medea
• How does Medea justify her final decision to
kill her children? (p. 71)
• Are her arguments convincing?
• How does Jason argue for his decision to
marry Glauke?
• Are his arguments convincing?
Other variants (1): Eumelos, Corinthiaca (epic
poem about Corinth)
• Medea’s family is originally from Corinth, they only later
migrate to Colchis
• After their arrival in Iolkos, Medea and Jason are summoned
to Corinth, where they become king and queen
• Medea takes each of her children to the shrine of Hera Akraia
(“of the Heights”) as they are born, in hope that they will
become immortal.
• Jason finds out, becomes upset and leaves. He returns to
Iolkos.
• Somehow the children die.
Other variants (2):scholia (explanatory notes) to
poems of Pindar
• Medea makes home in Corinth, and averts plague by
sacrificing to Demeter and the Nymphs.
• Zeus falls in love with her, but Medea refuses him, to
escape the wrath of Hera.
• In return, Hera promises to make her children
immortal.
• When children die, the Corinthians honor them [with
a hero cult] under the name of mixobarbaroi [halfbarbarians].
• Question: did Hera keep her promise?
Other variants (3): another apparently Corinthian
version
(Kreophylos via Didymus)
• Medea kills Creon, king of Corinth.
• Fearing vengeance she flees to Athens.
• Her children, who are too young to accompany her, she
deposits in the temple of Hera Akraia ["of the Heights”].
• Creon’s relatives kill them, afterwards spreading the rumor
that Medea killed her own children as well as Creon.
Other variants (4): Scholia to Euripides Medea
• Corinthians are unhappy being ruled by a woman
and a foreigner and a person skilled in drugs.
• They plot against Medea and plan to kill her children,
seven boys and seven girls.
• The children take shelter in the precinct of Hera
Akraia, but the Corinthians do not respect the
goddess and kill the children at the altar.
• A plague ensues and propitiation must be made.
Hero cult of the children is established.
• Nothing more is said about Medea.
Other variants (5). Pausanias (2nd c. CE) (=Anthology
p.345)
• On the right of the road (leaving Corinth for Sicyon) we see a temple with
a bronze image of Apollo, and a little further on a water-basin named after
Glauce; for they say she threw herself into it, thinking the water would be
an antidote to Medea’s drugs. Above this water-basin has been built what
is called the Odeon (Music Hall), beside which is the tomb of Medea's
children. Their names were Mermerus and Pheres, and they are said to
have been stoned to death by the Corinthians owing to the gifts which
legend says they brought to Glauce. But as their death was violent and
illegal, the young babies of the Corinthians were destroyed by them until,
at the command of the oracle, yearly sacrifices were established in their
honor and a figure of Terror was set up. This figure still exists, being the
likeness of a woman frightful to look upon, but after Corinth was laid
waste by the Romans and the old Corinthians were wiped out, the new
settlers broke the custom of offering those sacrifices to the sons of
Medea, nor do their children cut their hair for them or wear black clothes.
Other variants (6): Aelian (Greek, 2 to 3rd c. CE) 5.21
(=Anthology p. 2): Euripides becomes part of the myth
• One account says that the report concerning
Medea is false, that she did not kill her children,
but the Corinthians did. They say that Euripides
made up this myth about the Colchian woman
[Medea] in his play because the Corinthians
asked him to, and the lie prevailed over the truth
because of the poet’s excellence. To atone for the
outrage against the children, they say, up to the
present day the Corinthians offer sacrifice to the
children as if paying them tribute.