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Euripides Medea Part 1

Medea what’s it about? Background production, playwright, context, myth A Different Kind of Tragedy? Agon tragic sophistic. Euripides Medea Part 1. A Different Kind of Tragedy. Euripides’ Medea. What’s it About?. revenge - lover scorned family ties twisted love justice (personal)

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Euripides Medea Part 1

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  1. Medea what’s it about? Backgroundproduction, playwright, context, myth A Different Kind of Tragedy? Agon tragic sophistic Euripides Medea Part 1 A Different Kind of Tragedy

  2. Euripides’ Medea What’s it About?

  3. revenge- lover scorned family ties twisted love justice (personal) vendetta revenge betrayal love lost outcast barbarian self-service pride betrayal / unfaithfulness fear of outsiders origin, roots (m’s betrayal) broken promises – marriage hubristic jason deserves punishment meaning of marriage m: = love j: = social-ladder, secure What’s it About? (themes, issues)

  4. Background Production, Playwright, Context, Myth

  5. Playwright, Play • Euripides • 485/4 or 480–ca. 406 • 22 entries • 4 wins • Production • 431 BCE • Patriotic themes?? • “From of old the children of Erechtheus are / Splendid” (Chorus, p. 27)

  6. Medea’s Background maps Chariot of the Sun

  7. maps

  8. prologue (pp. 1 ff.) Nurse, Tutor, Medea (off stage) parodos(5 ff.) Chorus, Nurse, Medea (off stage) episode 1 (8 ff.) Medea, Creon – entrapment stasimon 1 (14 f.) misogyny, women’s silence reversed episode 2 (15 ff.) AGŌN: Jason, Medea stasimon 2 (20 f.) “may safe marriage, reasonable love be mine” episode 3 (21 ff.) Medea, Aegeus stasimon 3 (27 f.) Athens no land for Medea episode 4 (28 ff.) Jason, Medea – entrapment stasimon 4 (31 f.) murder approaches episode 5 (32 ff.) Tutor, Medea’s monologue anapestic (chanted) interlude (35 f.) Chorus: sorrows of parenthood episode 6 (36 ff.) Medea, Messenger (poisonings described) stasimon 5 (40 f.) desperate hopes (dochmiacs) exodos(41 ff.) catastrophe, Medea’s dea ex machina Play Analysis(pages refer to Dover ed.)

  9. Euripidean Dramaturgy A Different Kind of Tragedy?

  10. Euripidean Dramaturgy • Realism • Anachronism • Intellectualism • Experimentalism • genre-bending • Originality • Plotting, suspense • Framing-closure • prologue • deus ex machina Euripides

  11. A Different Kind of Tragedy? • “I was at the place / Where the old draught-players sit, by the holy fountain, …” (Tutor, p. 3) • “For not on us did Phoebus (= Apollo), lord of music, / Bestow the lyre’s divine / Power, for otherwise I should have sung an answer / To the other sex” (Chorus, 14) • “When love is in excess / It brings a man no honor” (Chorus, 20)

  12. Agōn: Tragic Sophistic Jason vs. Medea (pp. 15 ff.)

  13. chorus helps us side with her helps see m’s side j is determined blaming the victim j maybe thinks he’s justified j feels no guilt at all covering bases j ignorant he was feeling guilty! damage control Character Dynamics …

  14. “To make the weaker argument appear the stronger” –Protagoras Sophistic • sophos • sophia • sophistēs • sophistic • sophism • sophistry

  15. Medea: arguments M. helped-saved J. at cost J. broke vows. Where to go? shameful betrayal Jason: arguments Aphrodite saved J. though Medea helped M. gained more than gave. by moving to Greece Prudent match (argument from expediency). for J., for M., for children Women as trouble. (Tips his hand?) Medea “a hypocrite who is too glib only multiplies the danger that it puts him in” “you felt your glory tarnished by an aging, oriental wife” J. should have persuaded M. Jason “has nothing to do with women” generous motives Agon Analysis (pp. 15 ff.)

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