1. Medea
Euripides

2. Characters

3.  Medea - Protagonist of the play,
Medea's homeland is Colchis, an island in
the Black Sea, which the Greeks
considered the edge of the earth--a
territory of barbarians.

the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis,
niece of Circe, grand daughter of the sun
god Helios, and later wife to the hero
Jason, with whom she had two children.

5.  Jason - Jason can be considered the
play's villain, though his evil stems more from
weakness than strength.

A former adventurer, he abandons his wife,
Medea, in order to marry Glauce, the
beautiful young daughter of Creon, King of
Corinth.

Hoping to advance his station through this
second marriage, he only fuels Medea to a
revenge that includes the deaths of his new
bride, her father, and his children.

6.  Jason's tactless self-interest and whiny
rationalizations of his own actions make
him a weak, unsympathetic character.

8.  Children - The offspring of Jason and
Medea, the children are presented as naïve
and oblivious to the intrigue that surrounds
them.

Medea uses them as pawns in the murder of
Glauce and Creon, and then kills them in the
play's culminating horror.

Their innocent deaths provide the greatest
element of pathos--the tragic emotion of pity-in the play.

9.  Chorus - Composed of the women of
Corinth, the chorus chiefly serves as a
commentator to the action, although it
occasionally engages directly in the dialogue.

The chorus members fully sympathize with
Medea's plight, excepting her eventual
decision to murder her own children.

11.  Creon - The King of Corinth, Creon
banishes Medea from the city.

Although a minor character, Creon's
suicidal embrace of his dying daughter
provides one of the play's most dramatic
moments, and his sentence against
Medea lends an urgency to her plans for
revenge.

12.  Glauce - Daughter of Creon, Glauce is
the young, beautiful princess for whom
Jason abandons Medea.


Her acceptance of the poisoned coronet
and dress as "gifts" leads to the first murder
of the play. Although she never utters a
word, Glauce's presence is constantly felt
as an object of Medea's jealousy.
(Glauce is also referred to as Creusa.)

14.  Aegeus - The King of Athens, Aegeus
passes through Corinth after having visited
the Oracle at Delphi, where he sought a
cure for his sterility.

Medea offers him some fertility-inducing
drugs in exchange for sanctuary in Athens.

His appearance marks a turning point in the
play, for Medea moves from being a
passive victim to an aggressor after she
secures his promise of sanctuary.

15.  Messenger only
once
in
The messenger appears
the
play--he
relates
in
gruesome, vivid detail the death scenes of
Glauce and Creon, which occur offstage.

16.  Nurse - Caretaker of the house, the nurse
of the children serves as Medea's confidant.

Her presence is mainly felt in the play's
opening lament and in a few speeches
addressing diverse subjects not entirely
related to the action of the play.

17.  Tutor - A very minor character, the tutor
of
the
children
mainly
messenger,
as
well
as
responsible
for
shuffling
around from place to place.
acts
the
the
as
a
person
children

18. Summary of
Medea

20. 
The Medea tells the story of the jealousy and
revenge of a woman betrayed by her
husband. She has left home and father for
Jason's sake, and he, after she has borne
him children, forsakes her, and betroths
himself to Glauce, the daughter of Creon,
ruler of Corinth.

At the beginning of the play, Medea's in dire
straights. For one, her husband, Jason, has
married another woman, Glauce, daughter
of Creon the King of Corinth.

22. 
On top of that, Creon banishes Medea and
her two sons from Corinth. Medea, however,
is not the kind of woman to take such
mistreatment lying down.

She swears bloody revenge and swiftly sets
about finding a way to kill them all.

23. 
First, she convinces Creon to let her stay
one more day in Corinth. It goes against
his better judgment, but he allows it out of
pity for Medea's two sons.

This gives Medea enough time to put her
plot into motion. Next Medea has to
secure a safe place to retreat to once
she's committed the murders.

24. 
Jason arrives and reproaches Medea with
having provoked her sentence by her own
violent temper.

She had the sense to submit to sovereign
power she would never have been thrust
away by him.

In reply she reminds her husband of what
she had once done for him; how for him she
had betrayed her father and her people; for
his sake had caused Pelias, whom he
feared, to be killed by his own daughters.

25. 
"I am the mother of your children. Whither can
I fly, since all Greece hates the barbarian?“

"It is not you," answers Jason, "who once
saved me, but love, and you have had from
me more than you gave.

I have brought you from a barbarous land to
Greece, and in Greece you are esteemed for
your wisdom.

26. 
And without fame of what avail is treasure or
even the gifts of the Muses?

Moreover, it is not for love that I have
promised to marry the princess, but to win
wealth and power for myself and for my
sons.

Neither do I wish to send you away in need;
take as ample a provision as you like, and I
will recommend you to the care of my
friends."

27. 
She refuses with scorn his base gifts, "Marry
the maid if thou wilt; perchance full soon
thou mays true thy nuptials."

28. 
By an incredibly lucky coincidence, Aegeus,
King of Athens, happens by.

Medea promises to cure his sterility if he swears
to give her safe harbor. Of course, she neglects
to mention she's about to kill a bunch of people.

he swears that in Athens she shall find refuge.
Now, reassured, she turns to vengeance. She
has Jason summoned, and when he comes she
begs for his forgiveness.

29. 
Now that Medea has the time and a safe
place to retreat to, she can really get to
work. She snookers Jason into believing that
she's now cool with his new marriage.

Medea begs her husband to ask Glauce if
their two sons can stay in Corinth. Jason is
moved and agrees.

Medea gives Jason a gossamer gown and a
golden crown to sweeten the deal for
Glauce. Jason and the children trot off to the
palace with hope in their hearts.

30. 
Their hope is misplaced, however, for once
again Medea neglects to mention a vital
piece of information: the gifts are cursed.

A Messenger returns and tells Medea all
about the horror she has wreaked. When the
Princess put on the gown and crown, she
received a rather nasty surprise.

Her entire body caught fire and the flesh
melted from her bones.

31. 
When Creon saw his daughter's flaming
corpse, he was so distraught that he threw
his body onto hers and died as well. Medea
thinks this is great.

Now she only has one thing left to do, in
order to leave Jason totally devastated – kill
their sons.

The murder of her children isn't easy for
Medea. She struggles with her motherly
instincts, but in the end her revenge is more
important.

32. 
Medea drags the boys inside the house
and kills them with a sword. Jason arrives
too late to save his sons.

Very effective is this scene in which, after
a soliloquy of agonizing doubt and
hesitation, she resolves on this awful deed:

33. In vain, my children, have I brought you up,
Borne all the cares and pangs of motherhood,
And the sharp pains of childbirth undergone.
In you, alas, was treasured many a hope
Of loving sustentation in my age,
Of tender laying out when I was dead,
Such as all men might envy.
Those sweet thoughts are mine no more, for
now bereft of you
I must wear out a drear and joyless life,
And you will nevermore your mother see,
Nor live as ye have done beneath her eye.

34. Alas, my sons, why do you gaze on me,
Why smile upon your mother that last smile?
Ah me! What shall I do? My purpose melts
Beneath the bright looks of my little ones.
I cannot do it. Farewell, my resolve,
I will bear off my children from this land.
Why should I seek to wring their father's heart,
When that same act will doubly wring my
own?
I will not do it. Farewell, my resolve.

35. What has come o'er me? Shall I let my foes
Triumph, that I may let my friends go free?
I'll brace me to the deed. Base that I was
To let a thought of wickedness cross my soul.
Children, go home. Whoso accounts it wrong
To be attendant at my sacrifice,
Let him stand off; my purpose is unchanged.
Forego my resolutions, O my soul,
Force not the parent's hand to slay the child.
Their presence where we will go will gladden thee.
By the avengers that in Hades reign,
It never shall be said that I have left
My children for my foes to trample on.
It is decreed.

36. 
Jason, who has come to punish the
murderess of his bride, hears that his children
have perished too, and Medea herself
appears to him in the chariot of the sun,
bestowed by Helios, the sun-god, upon his
descendants. She revels in the anguish of her
faithless husband.

"I do not leave my children's bodies with
thee; I take them with me that I may bury
them in Hera's precinct. And for thee, who
didst me all that evil, I prophesy an evil
doom."

37. 
Just as he's banging on the door to stop his
wife, Medea erupts into the sky in a chariot
drawn by dragons. Jason curses his wife, and
she curses him back.

He begs to have the children's bodies so that
he can bury them. She refuses him even this,
and takes their corpses away with her as she
flies away triumphant.

38. 
She flies to Aegeus at Athens, and the
tragedy closes with the chorus:
Manifold are thy shaping's, Providence!
Many a hopeless matter gods arrange.
What we expected never came to pass,
What we did not expect the gods brought
to bear;
So have things gone, this whole experience
through!"

39. 
Medea, after killing her own children,
riding in a chariot with winged serpents,
escaped to Athens where she married
Aigeus, the son of Pandion.

They had one son, Medus, although
Hesiod makes Medus the son of Jason.
Her domestic bliss was once again
shattered by the arrival of Aegeus' longlost son, Theseus.

40. 
Determined to preserve her own son's
inheritance, Medea convinced her husband
that Theseus was a threat and that he should
be disposed of.

As Medea handed Theseus a cup of poison,
Aegeus recognized the young man's sword as
his own, which he had left behind many years
previous for his newborn son, to be given to
him when he came of age. Knocking the cup
from Medea's hand, Aegeus embraced
Theseus as his own.

41.  Medea
then returned to Colchis and,
finding that Aeëtes had been
deposed by his brother Perses,
promptly killed her uncle, and restored
the kingdom to her father.
 Herodotus
reports another version, in
which Medea and her son Medus fled
from Athens to the Iranian plateau
and lived among the Aryans, who
then changed their name to the
Medes.

42. Prepared by:
Charlene C.
Agbisit