Medea is every philandering husband's nightmare.
She's a woman who is rejected when her husband has made his fortune. As a foreigner, she is 'inconvenient'. Jason wants a trophy wife in recognition of his achievements. But Medea strikes back and her vengeance is operatic. Wouldn't a negotiated divorce have been easier on everyone? Jason says he simply wanted to benefit his whole family. But they couldn't communicate: Jason spoke the language of the head, whereas Medea's was that of the heart, just where she knew she could attack Jason best. Euripides' Medea, written in 431 BC, is still passionately alive today, and no play since has so captured the imagination of audiences. Medea was the first terrorist. Euripides' play shows us a heroine who takes the most awful revenge imaginable on her enemy and gets away scot-free. It is often performed to represent the consequences of someone oppressed fighting back. Or was it abuse of power? Does Medea go too far? Euripides has created one of the greatest and most terrifying portraits of a woman in drama.
Marianne McDonald, Ph.D., MRIA
Professor of Theatre and Classics at UCSD
