Medea Background

Origins of Greek theatre:

 Began as a way of worshipping the God Dionysus.
 Dionysus first arrived in Greece in the area North of Attica.
 He was one of the many sons of Zeus.
 He brought the people of Attica the gift of knowledge of how to make wine out of grapes. So
the Attica people established a form of worship as a way of gratitude.
 One of the local kings accepted the gift and gave it to his people who when they felt drunk
thought that their king had tried to poison them, so they killed him.
 The fact that they killed the king angered the God and he punished them (plagues...etc)
 To show gratitude to the God and to ask for forgiveness and to show that they worship him
they had a winter festival.
 At this festival, the females would run round naked and perform orgies. The sexual activity
was to stimulate life to come back to life.
 After that they have a spring festival and in this festival it was the men who took control.
This festival was a celebration of the coming to new life. The men would dress up in goat
skins (tragados) and imitate satyrs (mythical half goat/half man creatures) the men would
also attach phallus (huge fake penises) and sing songs of praise to Dionysus. The songs were
called Odi Tragaon.
 The festivals gradually developed and become a more formal and organised celebration by
the 5th century BC.
 The festivals became the number 1 opinion-setting institution in Greek democracy.
 Greek king, PesistratusCult of Dionysus in Athens in 6th Century BC.
 There were 4 festivals. The most important was in spring celebrated throughout Attica.
 In this festival people would do poet/playwrights and compete to try to win.
 The first ever winner of the competition was Thespin in 534BC. We get the word Thespian
from there (which I a posh word for actor.)
 The playwrights would do everything: write play, design costumes, play main part.)
 The panel of judges would decide the winner.
 There would be three main playwrights and they would have a whole day to present their
plays. In one day they had to provide 3 tragidies and one satyr. The plays were performed
from dawn to dusk. After they had performed in Athens they would tour round to different
areas. To get in it would cost about 2 obols (which was a day’s pay at minimum wage.)
 In the years after it became free to participate for all citizens. By this time it was the
audience who chose the winner. The biggest applaus would determine the winner.

The most primitive of Greek theatres:

 Orchestra – dancing place. Just a circular area. You get a group of 12-15 actors there in a
group together and they would dance and sing. In the centre of the orchestra you would
have the alter for the God where the sacrifices were offered. The alter could be used as a
prop during plays and sometimes you would get the flute or harp player playing there.
 Theaoni = to view.
 Theatai = Audience
 Theatron = the place where the audience would sit. (always in the open air. No pillars, so
wherever you sat you always had a clear view.)
 A row of special seats placed near the theatre = for priests, rich people and judges.
 There was no actual stage until about 460BC.
 Paradoi: two ramps set on either side of the theatron which marks entrance and exist places.
 Skene = sort of like a big bow that could be used as a setting (painted on) and also used as a
changing room and as a place for scenes of murder in the play “behind closed doors”.
Sometimes trapped doors where put in the skene so that actors could appear ontop of the
skene (usually gods).
 Mechane – crane used for flying characters.
 Ekkyklema – rolling platform that usually had a body covered in fake blood as a result of a
murder.
 Actors wore a masks made of wood, leather or cloth. Large mouth hole.
 Actors all men
 Costumes elaborate and carefully designed to show dominate character of actor.
 Gestures exaggerated. Actors had to be good singers.
 Group of 12-15 actors = Chorus.
 The chorus was also the ideal spectator. Helped to clarify what our reactions as the audience
should be. Acts as a kind of bridge between characters of play and audience.
 Chorus can be used to introduce new characters. And can ask questions to characters and
comment on events. At various points a chorus could divide up into little groups and would
sing and dance and sometimes have dialogue with characters.

Theatron

Paradoi
orchestra

Skene
Euripides:
 Know very little about him. And most of what we know as his biography was rumours.
 Born 485BC
 Parents were tradesmen’s in Salamis
 Euripides trained as a professional wrestler. But he hated games and preferred painting so
he became an artist.
 Was a very quiet studious man who enjoyed the companionship of close friends but not
large crowds
 Liked to go to a cave where he would and sit alone and write plays.
 Started writing round the age of 18
 At 24 his first competition.
 Records that he has written 92 plays. But only 10 survived.
 He was very popular with the audience but not judges. He only won 5 prices.
 Medea is considered to be his master piece. It didn’t win any competitions though.
 Was a great reader and collected lots of books.
 His library was one of the most comprehensive libraries around.
 Interested in psychology (esp abnormal psychology)- we see his interest in medea
 He is inventor of form tragi-comedy. (tragic comedy)
 Tragic comedy replaced the slapstic (e.g. clowns throwing pies in peoples faces) satyr plays.
 Introduced realism in costumes, language and character.
 Never saw people as being totally wicked. He saw their weakness too.
 Tends to take the side of the underdog (the one in a position of weakness.)-see things from
standpoint of outsider (in this case its in the view of the woman)
 Archelaus – macedon (406-407 BC died)
 Found 3 plays amoung his belonging when he died and were presented in Athens and he
won first prize.

The legend of Argo (Argonauts):

 Pelias
 Aeson (Pelias half brother) – rightful king of thessaly
 Aeson in dungeons married and had sons (Jason one of them)
 Jason snuggled out of dungeon and taken to mount Pelium and educated by a Centaur
(Chiron)
 Pelias getting worried that he will get over-thrown. goes to consult a priest type person.
The prophecy tells him to beware of a man wearing one sandle.
 Pelias held Olympic thing for his father (Poseidon = sea god)
 Jason on the way to the Olympic thing helps a god and loses (Aera-Goddess of women and
marriage)-loses sandal
 .......
 Jason and his team (Argonauts) go on an adventure (argo)
 Reaches Colchis and hoped to take fleece but wasn’t allowed. He had to complete 3 more
tasks. By king aeetes. Jason wants to give up but Aera persuaded Aphrodite (godess of love
and beauty) persuades King Aeetes to persuade Medea to fall in love with Jason. (she does)
 Medea is the witch princess of cultures (she has magical powers). She agrees to help Jason.
  1st task: put a yoke on 2 fire breathing bulls and use them to plow fields. Medea=ointment
that prevents him from getting burnt by the flames
 2nd task: sow the fields plant dragons teeth. fight soldiers who spring out of the land where
he plants the dragon teeth. Medea: throw a rock to make the soldiers fight each other.
 3rd: defeat the sleepless dragon that guards the fleet. Medea= potion to make dragon sleep
 Jason gets the golden fleece and takes it back to Pelias.
 Medea, Jason and Medeas younger brother (Apsyrtus) go off.
 Father of Medea on the chase after them.
 Medea to save Jason kills brother and scatters his body parts on the sea that the father
collect and that gives them time.
 Medea helps to kill Pelias.
 Pelias son (Acastus) cross about the death of his father. Drives Medea and Jason into exile in
Cornth.
 Jason keen to strengthen political force in Cornth and becomes engaged to Glause (daughter
of king of Cornth) medea furious. Listed ways she helped Jason. Jason says it was the Godess
that helped him.
 Medea furious and takes Glauce a poisoned wedding dress that kills her.
 Medea had two sons with Jason. Was afraid her sons might be murdered so she murders
them. Jason found out. Captured Medea, but she escaped in a chariot pulled by Dragons
which was provided by Helios (Sun God) who was her grandfather.

Political context in which Euriphides was writing:

 Democracy-direct government by full body citizens.
 Citizens: adult, males, two Athenian parents.
 431BC: 40,000 citizens
 All decisions made by assembly and all citizens allowed to attend assembly meetings and
entitled to be compensated for loss of earning.
 Business prepaired by counsel of 500 citizens.
 They were chosen by lot and served in committees of 50 that served for 1 tenth of a year.
 Also had 10 generals that served for 1 year.
 If you were a general who’d been ‘ostracised’ you’d be banned for ten yrs but wouldn’t lose
your rights or anything that you owned.
 Ambitious state.
 Athens able to trade freely across seas and could export olive oil, wine, pottery, slaves...etc =
wealth.
 Sparta felt that Athens power threatened Sparta’s trade. War broke out (lasted 27yrs)
 Pericles (powerful politician) 495-429BC. wanted to take refuge behind walls of Athens.
Overcrowding = plague.
 Tried to take over Sicily (415-413 BC). two armies of Athens wiped out.
 Athens defeated in 404BC.
Social context:
 Athens relied on slaves for labour. 110,000 slaves in total population of 300,000.
 Laurium-silver mines.
 Acropolis: built by slaves and free men.
 All slaves were aliens. They had been captured or bought from somewhere else then raised
in athens.
 There were 25-30, 000 free residents ‘metics’
 Anyone who was not Greek = barbarian. (because they couldn’t speak lucid Greek and when
they spoke Greek they made a sound that went ba ba ba)
 The Greeks feel superior to the ‘barbarians’. In Medea we see this = Medea challenging the
superiority of Greeks.
 Aristotle (philosopher) 384-322BC: ‘democracy = government by the poor. Oligarchy =
government by the few’.
 Women had no political right until end of 19 th century AD. So women were seen as people
who had to stay at home and take responsibility there. “A women’s greatest glory was not to
be talked about by males for either good or ill” –Pericles
 Attitude to women challenged by Euripides in Medea (he was a feminist)
 Your school day (elementary): gymnastics, music, reading, writing, arithmetic and learning to
recite poetry by heart. = morally improving. This was free.
 After elementary older pupils could be taught (paid for) by travelling tutors called Sophists.
Would train students and encourage freedom of thoughts.
 Most famous Sophist: Protagoras “man is the measure of all things. The existence of things
that exist and the non-existence of those that do not.” = if I think a thing is right, then it’s
right for me.

PLAY MEDEA

Dramatic Structure:
 Action interspersed with interventions from the chorus.
 Divided into following section:
Lines 1-130: Prologue: Nurse, Tutor (Medea within)
Lines 131-212: Parados: (Entry of the chorus) Nurse in stage (Medea)
Lines 213-409: 1st Episode: Medea + Creon
Lines 410-445: 1st Stasiman: chorus
446-626: 2nd Episode: Medea and Jason
 627-662: 2nd Stasiman: Chorus
663-823: 3rd Episode: Ageus and Medea: pivotal scene
824-865: 3rd Stasiman: Chorus
866-975: 4th Episode: Jason and Medea
976-1001: 4th Stasiman: Chorus
1002-1250: 5th Episode: Medea, tutor, chorus, medea and messenger
1251-1292: 5th Stasiman: chorus: death of children within
1293-1419: Exodos: Jason and Medea, chorus.

The play of Medea:

 Starts with nurse talking which is unusual (normal it’s a God or a kind). This outlines the
journey of Argo. The first name mentioned is Argo which is a motive which figures
throughout the play. The mention of the ship is a reminder to the audience of Jason’s glory
days. Seems this is what he is still living on; past glories. The sea has many references aswell.
Jaws of rock= clashing rocks on eastern coast of black sea that Jason had to go through (the
sympeglades)
 Greeks believed traditionally that there was something wrong and sinful about conquering
the sea; they saw it as an ancient divine power and that by taking control of it you would
violate the sea. Anybody who did any kind of violence to the sea is a form of hubris (arrogant
pride) which will be punished. Jason seen as a character who did an act of violence against
the sea and in the end he is justly punished.
 Starts with regret. Wants to turn back clock. Bad omen. It is a feeling that carries on
throughout the play. However nobody ever seems to accept responsibility of the events. The
never say they were wrong to do that. They suffer consequences of their actions. So unlike
many other tragedies they don’t seem to come to an understanding of themselves and who
they are; they just wish they could undo the past. It still works effectively as a tragedy
because the audience can see the mistakes and it’s the audience that comes to a greater
understanding of the character. Deeper understanding of humans not coming from
characters but audience. Tragedy= they suffer consequences of their actions.
 Sinister opening and background to story then we find out about Medea herself. She has a
complex relationship with her children. She has been welcomed to Corinth as a citizen either
than an alien.
 ‘while to Jason she is all obedience- and.....will’ = irony. On the surface she pretends to be
obedience (to Jason) when deep down inside its not her natural nature to be obedient. ‘and
in marriage thats the saving thing’ – men in audience probably nodding (nurse upholding
traditional view of wife.)
 ‘mad in love with Jason’ = Medea was made to fall in love with Jason. Seems like the love is
governing her. In the end the love swings to wild hatred when she is rejected by Jason.
 Medea = seen as scary and powerful. Nurse has bad feeling that Medea is going to do
something terrible ‘I am afraid some dreadful purpose is forming in her mind.’ Nurse shows
sympathy towards Medea, ‘poor Medea’. Shows that the fault is all with Jason ‘Jasons
wickedness’. Worries about what Medea might do; she is capable of doing good and evil.
 Greek society: only allowed one wife. Jason gets two cause Medea was seen as a mistress.
  ‘invoking every vow’ going back on the vows made = seen as a bad thing that will be
punished.
 The maid shows us that you can’t reason with Medea and that she has given up a lot to be
with Jason. ‘And when her friends reason with her.....spurns and insults her.’
 ‘here come the boys...’ stage direction. Boys seen as being ignorant.
 ‘young heads and....together.’ maid seeing as an almost motherly figure?

 Tutor: takes care of the boys (or tries to). Comes across as being pompous and a little bit
arrogant. The tutor isn’t really important in the play (just there to bring sons on and off at
correct times-which reminds us that the children are young, defenceless and vulnerable
which makes Medeas crime even worse; larger impact.)
 Earth, heaven and sun see everything and takes revenge on those who do wrong. ‘I had to
come out here and tell my mistress’s wrong to earth and heaven.’
 Tutor enjoys the little moment of power. He knows something and he is withholding it, but
he won’t keep it for long and he quickly tells the nurse and audience.
 Medea and sons are going to be sent into exile.
 Medea compared to wild bull. Effect= makes her sound very dangerous and reminds us of
Medeas past (how she helped Jason to plough the fields with the fire-breathing bulls). This
person who can protect you from fire breathing bulls can also become the bull herself.
 No one is really safe from Medea, including the children. ‘she’ll not relax her rage till she has
found her victim, God grant she strikes her enemies and not her friends.’
 First encounter with Medea: Great wailing cry coming from inside the house.
 Before Medeas line = Iambic pentameter- alternate unstressed/stressed syllables: 5 string
beats to a line (di-dum, di-dum...etc) coming from the Greek word to limp.
 After Medeas line: quickened pace = anapaest meter- two unstressed and one stressed (di-
di-dum, di-di-dum.)
 ‘deep in passion and unrelenting’ – seem out of place in a childrens nurse because in Greek
they are medical so you would expect it in the mouth of a doctor or something. Puts more
emphasis on the words.
 Princess, sorceress and betrayed by her husband is a dangerous and powerful combination.
 Greek word Sophrosyne= self-control/self-restraint. A virtue all Greek men were expected to
posses.
 Second part of prologue= come to understand Medea more clearly. She comes across as
being a woman who has been emotionally broken by Jason and is lashing out to anyone who
has any connection with him including the children and her.
 This wailing is just like the dark clouds that arrive before a thunderstorm breaks out.

PARADOS (line 131-213) questions:

1. Whom do the chorus represent and why?
The Corinthian women because we need a women’s point of view and make the readers
more sympathetic towards Medea.
2. How can we see straight away that the chorus is sympathetic towards Medea?
“And my own heart suffers too” (pg 21)
3. In the chorus’s first speech to Medea what do they reproach her with?
Tell her she is foolish to want to die. ‘What madness is this?...you demand?’
4. Why are Zeus, Themis and Artemis mentioned?
Artemis/Nemesis: goddess of fatal retributress of wrongs (takes back wrongs?)
Themis : Godess of social justice. Medea is calling on the Gods because she wants the Gods
to oversee putting the wrongs right (the wrongs that Jason did to her.)
5. Why does the nurse take her time fetching Medea? (Line 174-194)?
Doesn’t want Medea to do harm to the children. She is scared. Describes Medea as a bull
and a lion. Passions taking over her. ‘lioness protecting her cubs’ = Medea has a passionate
love for her children, but she is overcome by this mad, impulsive behaviour. She is not just a
fierce monster, she has fierce love but at the same time an overwhelming passion.
6. Just before Medea enters the scene, the chorus reminds us of two key things which add to
the suspense. What are they?
Betrayal from Jason. desire for husband to be dead. Called upon the Gods.

Page 23 +
 Medea comes out cool and self-possessed. Get impression she is extremely self-
controlled and concerned of her reputation. Greeks had to present very measured
response to keep good reputation.
 To win the chorus: addresses them as fellow women and focuses on their shared
experience. Remind them that just like her they are women and share common
experiences. Mentions three key things: betrayal by husband ‘he has proven himself
the most contemptible of men’. As women they are powerless ‘possessor of our
body’. She is a foreigner, she doesn’t have the full rights of a citizen ‘a foreign
women’.
 Role of women: they had no rights. (Euripides identifies with the women’s view
point.) they have to ‘buy’ their husbands. Husband owned the women completely
‘possessor of our body’. Women were allowed to divorce their husbands but it was
looked down upon. Women had to learn how to please her husband. To adapt to the
customs of the man. Perfectly acceptable for man to have an affair but not the other
way around. Euripides gives the message through Medea that it was easier to fight
than to give birth= antagonise reaction of men who would react quite strongly to
that. Medea = has no home. In Greece that was considered a terrible fate (to be a
refugee)
 How Medea’s behaviour differs from Athenian women: she is confident and
powerful. (not weak and timid as expected)
 As a Greek women, medea would have the rights of a Greek woman an she would
have her family with her. If she was Greek, Jason wouldn’t marry Glaus.
 It would get the women to sympathise with her but will most likely enrage the men.
 How aggressive Creon is: very insulting ‘you there! Scowling rage against your
husband. He doesn’t try to break the news gently; he orders her, its immediate
‘waste no time.’ Blustering authority: ‘I order you’, ‘my palace’, ‘my boundaries’ he
is afraid of Medea and he will make sure that he is out of his way. He is a weak man
who has to cover up by all the shouting and blustering. Not as confident as he might
appear.
 ‘my enemies have spread full sail’ – nautical image of the argo journey. It means her
enemies are out to get her and she has nowhere to go ‘no welcoming shore to
receive me’.
 ‘my reputation....’ important speech. She feels that her intelligence is a
curse/burden because a clever woman is rejected by everybody. The ignorant don’t
understand her and the intellectuals are afraid of her intelligence. Creon sees Medea
as a threat because of her cleverness. If she just had a passionate rage she wouldn’t
be so frightening. But rage + intelligence = deadly combination. Medea persuades
Creon by responding that it’s Jason that she hates, not Creon or his daughter. She is
downplaying herself as a threat. She is talking about her intelligence as a rumour,
she brings this idea of she has no power and she is not as intelligent as people say so
that it makes it less important. ‘After all am not so clever as all that.’
 An empty sort of reputation but Creon stays firm; ‘no craft of your will find a way to
stay in my city.’ Creon is determined not let her persuade him. So Medea uses a
different tactic: she kneels to beg. When the words didn’t work, she uses gestures.
Kneeling and clinging onto him. Throughout the play Medea kneels to men 3 times
and it is a very calculated gesture that she does to get what she wants. ‘I kneel to
you, I beseech you....’ change in pattern of verse; stichomythia-single line dialogue.
It’s a line to line conversation. Effect= shows conflict between 2 characters; like a
competition. After a fairly static pace, it increases the pace.
 ‘what an evil power love has in peoples lives’ – Jason and Glaus, both wretched lives.
Love is a destructive force. Love and hatred two sides of the same thing.
 The audience know that in the one day that Medea is asking for, she is going to
cause havoc. ‘you can hardly in one day accomplice what I am afraid of.’ We know
that what is dearest to creon is his daughter and country: shown weakness to
Medea. We know that Medea is shrewd: playing on his fatherly feeling of his
daughter to get what she wants: an extra day in Corinth. Medea has managed to
persuade him very easily.
 Significance of ‘holy sun’: The God of the sun, Helius, is Medeas Grandfather. He
watches over the oath. Creon has made an oath/threat to Medea swearing by the
holy sun, a relative of Medea.
 Chorus: still on Medea’s side. They are worrying for her ‘Medea, poor Medea’,
‘where can you turn, who is going to help you?’- This dramatically anticipates the
arrival of Aegeus, King of athenes, who will come and help her. The chorus is
wondering what Medea would do because she is exiled.
 Medea’s response: she is plotting their death and how she should kill them. She is
also calculating the consequences of the different kinds of action. She is worried
about her reputation. ‘if am caught in the act, I die and the last laugh goes to my
enemies.’ –doesn’t want people laughing at her. ‘harden my heart to the uttermost’
= in the last resort if I can’t do it I will stab myself. She doesn’t feel she is evil
enough.
 Queen Hectate: Goddess of witchcraft. Most important God to Medea. ‘my central
hearth...’
 Medea is a very calculating murderess.
 ‘no one of them should hurt me and not suffer for it.’ She is manlike.
 ‘come lay your plan, medea; scheme with all your skill.’ Its a pun. Medea is scheming
personified because scheme in Greek is medos. She is linking her name with
scheming.

 ‘Streams of sacred rivers flow uphill’ there will be monumental change. Things will
be different and opposite. (chorus, p.g. 29)
 When they enter from the audience’s right: they are coming from the city. If they
enter from the left they are coming from the country.
 Jason: ‘if you had quietly accepted the decisions’ : he is blaming Medea and saying
she is the reason for her troubles. ‘I have tried all the time to calm them down.’
Sounds like he has been negotiating with the higher powers. Pretends like he is
trying to be her friend, ‘will not desert a friend’. He is hypocritical. He is offering
Medea money; and she would feel insulted. Jason’s opening speech comes after the
chorus where in the chorus they talked about the deceit from men and this speech
seems to be an example.
 In Medea’s speech she shows that she is capable of very structured speech. She uses
good structural markers, ‘I will begin at the beginning’ to show where she is heading.
She is challenging the commonly held view of Euripides time that Women are
emotional and not able to structure and give powerfull arguments. Logical
progression in her ideas. She claims that she saved his life, that she is the one who
truly killed the serpent. She starts by saying how she saved his life and enabled him
to escape, betrayed her father, killed pelias and her brother, and after all this, Jason
still betrays her. Irony: ‘what a welcome they would offer me, who killed their
father.’ Tragedy: ‘I who saved your life am begging beside the road’=powerful image
of what he has done to her. ‘the skin bears no revealing mark’ = with people there is
no way of knowing who is going to be trustful, true and who is going to be false.
 Chorus= Philia love (dearest love): brotherly or familiar love. Sort of a reciprocated
love. Seems that Jason and Medea have not experienced philia love because they
are so caught up in themselves. Medea only sees passionate love, caught up in love
or hate.
 Jason: says it’s the God Aphrodite that played the greatest role in his success and
that Medea only fell in love with him because of the Goddess and that infact its not
really about Medea. Jason things of his own self interest. His arguments don’t
follow and he often contradicts himself. Doesn’t want sons, then goes on to say he
would like other sons. Doesn’t want hordes of money, goes on to say that he doesn’t
want to live a poor life.
 Chorus: ‘superficially convincing’
 .... till page 39
 Aegeus promises to protect her and he says that Medea has to get away on her own
because Aegeus doesn’t want to lose his connections with people in Corinth. ‘your
forethought is remarkable’ = Aegueus is impressed with Medea because he thinks
his promise is enough but Medea has thought it over and she needs to have more
reassurance. So Medea makes Aegeus swear this promise in front of the Gods, which
makes her more secure. You must get the Corinth quickly and alone is repeated by
Aegeus 3 times.
 Medea makes Aegeus swear by all the powerful Gods, the earth and her
Grandfather.
 Aegeus: Provides a good contrast to Jason. He is an honest man, clever. He
recognises the power and intelligence of Medea. Has more respect for her. Aegeus
places great importance on having sons. He is childless but wants to have children.
Jason is a father but he doesn’t really care for his children. Jason makes promises
readily and breaks them easily, he holds oaths cheaply. Aeugus takes the oaths more
seriously and he seems reluctant to make an oath first, but in the end gives in. We
get the impression that he values his oaths more and he will keep it.
 Sense of tension increased when Medea is so serious when she makes Aegeus make
this promise. ‘once you are bound by oath you should not give me up when they try
to take me out of your territory.’ We don’t know what Medea is planning but we get
the impression it’s going to be something big and bad.
 Medea reveals her plans: Make a poisonous dress. Ask her sons to give it to Glaus.
Then kill her children. She wants to kill the children to stop other people from killing
them first. She would rather kill them than to leave them behind to suffer insult and
a bad reputation. She also wants to kill her children to cause Jason grief and pain.
 She thinks like a Greek man: she is concerned with her reputation. ‘let no one think
of me as humble or weak or passive; let them understand I am a different kind:
dangerous to my enemies, loyal to my friends.’ This is male attributes. Euripides
gives Medea very masculine attributes to challenge the views of the Greek at the
time.
 Medea is reacted like a wounded animal. Reacting out of hurt. ‘you have not been
treated as I have’ : still makes us have sympathy for her. By wanting to kill her
children she is showing her love because we see that she is concerned about what
might happen to them. ‘my darling children’. She still loves her children even if she is
planning on murdering them.
 Jason hasn’t shown a great deal of affection for his children. He doesn’t think about
letting his children stay, he is quite happy to have them banished with their mother.
 ‘irrelevant and futile’ –Aristotle’s view of the episode.
 Chorus hardly ever interferes in the tragedy: but here they try to persuade Medea
not to carry out her plans. They don’t tell anyone about her plans though.
 Chorus try to persuade Medea not to kill children by trying to shock her: graphic
details. ‘How will you built resolution in hand or heart’ = shock her. Paint of a picture
of how it is going to be to try to shock her out of it. They also say that by killing her
children she will spoil the plans she has to go to Athens. ‘How ill Athens welcome
you, the child killer whose presence is pollution.’ Third technique is that they beg
her not to slaughter her children. ‘We beseech you, do not slaughter your children.’

 Medeas speech (pg 44): Highly ironic. She has judged exactly what Jason wants to
hear and tells him what he hears. Huge contrast between the way that she shouts
earlier and the way she is sweet now. She is basically saying that Jason should not be
angry with her because she is a helpless female. When she speaks to him she uses
his name unless the previous scene where she could not bring herself to speak his
name. She kneels (but it’s to get what she wants.)