Shivam Patel Period 7/8 Fam Medea Notes Background: CHARACTERS: i.

Medea: from Colchis (Rome-ish), barbarian witch, daughter of Aeetes, princess of Colchis, Helias is the sun god and he is Medea's grandfather, killed the giant serpent that her dad put to guard the Golden Fleece, to buy time to escape from her father, she cut up her brother ABSYRTUS and tossed his pieces behing the Argo as they sailed to Greece so that her father would have to find his pieces to put together for his burial, she goes with Jason to his heriditary kingdom of Iolcus,,, she told the daughters of Pelias ( Jason's uncle who sat on the throne of Iolcus without any right and at this time Jason's dad died [not specified why] ) that if they wanted to restore him to his youth, they had to cut him up and her magic would put his pieces together to his youth... this move by Medea caused them to be exiled to Corinth with their kids,,, in corinth Jason finds a new bride so this is where the play begins. ii.Jason: Greek hero, captain of the Argonauts, led the crew in search of the Golden Fleece, his voyage represents the first naval assault by the Greeks against the Eastern people,, he is the real "hero" iii.Nurse: She calls Medea her "mistress",,,, fears for everyone's safety iv.Chorus of Corinthian wommen: they are fellow women of her area,, Medea asks the chorus to aid her in seeking revenge by keeping silent. and they do as she

says. v.Creon: king of Corinth,, Jason's new father in law,,, he tells Medea that she is banished-so she begs for mercy--he gives her a one day reprieve("postpone")--so Medea tells chorus that one day is enough to get her revenge,,, vi.Tutor: present in the beginning,,, keeps the kids "away" from the mother...if possible. vii.Aegus: king of Athens,,, old friend of Medea,,,he has no children,,, he is promised by Medea that if he gives her a safe haven in Athens.. she will help him get a child,,,Medea makes the old king [Aegus] vow by all the gods.(now knowing that she is secure, Medea tells the Chorus of her plans). SETTING: Time: the play itself dates back to about the time of the Trojan wars about 1200's BC. Where: Play is in Corinth,,, other places in the ''before'' part are: Iolcus, Colcis.NOT ATHENS.

BASIC PLOT: The problem set at the beginning of the play is that Jason has decided to marry another wife, GLAUCE, the daughter of Creon, King of Corinth. Medea is angered and will not let Jason off without punishment. She plans to kill both GLAUCE and Creon and also her children by Jason. The horror of this causes a dilemma in her mind. Can she be so savage to go through with it? VELLACOTT sees the conflict in the play as between CIVILISATION and UNCIVILISED PASSION (i.e. Jason and Medea). "To appreciate the balance of this play, we must take care not to prejudge Jason. He was a man of entirely

respectable ambitions; and to these ambitions Medea presented two fatal obstacles: she had involved him in murder before ever he came to Corinth; and as a nonGreek she could never be recognised by Greeks as his wife". Therefore it is a struggle between REASON and VIOLENCE. "In the character of Jason a concern for civilised values is joined with a calculating coldness and an unscrupulous want of feeling. In that of Medea warmth of feeling grows on the same stem as emotional excess and the propensity to violence. The lesson is that civilised men ignore at their peril the world of instinct, emotion and irrational experience; that carefully worked-out notions of right and wrong are dangerous unless they are flexible and allow for constant adjustment." Aegeus' promise of refuge for the murderess Medea vindicates her case - the universe is not always on the side of civilisation. KITTO sees Medea deliberately portrayed as not a 'normal woman' but excessive in her passions. "Medea is not all villainy; she loves her children, loved Jason, and was popular in Corinth; but it is the essential part of his tragedy that she was never really different from what we see her to be.. Euripides could easily have represented her as a good but passionate woman who plunges into horrors only when stung by deadly insult and injury. There was no need for him to rake up her past as he does -except that this is his whole point. "She is tragic in that her passions are stronger than her reason She is bound to be a torment to herself and to others; that is why Euripides shows her blazing her way through life leaving wreckage behind her; that she suffers herself is a great

and no doubt a necessary part of the drama, but it is not the point of the tragedy. Passion is stronger than reason, and so can be a most destructive agent. Destructive to whom? Here, to the children, Glauce, Creon, Jason, and to Medea's peace - but not to her life; in short, destructive to society at large". "Balance of character is necessarily denied her, and this means that we cannot lose ourselves in sympathy with her as we do with Oedipus. Euripides is not asking us to sympathise with her in this way, but to understand her (and to understand that people like her exist - victims of a primitive force). Euripides, like most Greeks, is a rationalist in that he believes reason, not belief or formula or magic, to be the guide to life; but he sees too, that we have in us, besides reason, non-rational emotions which are necessary but may run wild, thwarting our reason and bringing calamity. In the last analysis Euripides' tragic hero is mankind. Some natural passion breaks its bounds, and the penalty has to be paid, either by the sinner or by those around him or by both his tragic conception that the passions and unreason to which humanity is subject are its greatest scourge We see Medea not merely as the betrayed and vindictive wife but as the impersonation of one of the blind and irrational forces in human nature. (There is more in the Medea than the lesson that 'barbarian magicians who are passionate and are villainously treated do villainous things'.) THEMES: Women and Femininity Medea sharply criticizes the male-dominated society of its time. Its protagonist is a radical anti-heroine who continues to inspire both admiration and fear. We

sympathize with Medea's downtrodden... Revenge Medea's relentless pursuit of vengeance is legendary. She is driven by a passionate desire to right the wrongs done to her and sacrifices even her own children in the pursuit of satisfaction. Medea... Betrayal All the violence and terror in Medea is caused by Jason's betrayal of his wife Medea. Her sheer rage at his unfaithfulness drives her to commit horrific acts of bloody revenge. Ironically, Medea's... Exile Medea is laced throughout with the theme of exile. All the characters relate to the motif. Some, like Medea, have been banished from their homes; some are the ones doing the banishing. The theme of... Foreignness and 'The Other' Ancient Greeks had a deep suspicion of foreigners, thinking of them all as "barbarians." With Medea, Euripides seems to confront this prejudice by choosing to honor a foreigner with the role of tra... Marriage Medea is an extreme depiction of just how bad a marriage can go. It really doesn't get much worse than the marriage seen in this play. When Jason takes a new wife, Medea, his former wife takes reve... Cunning and Cleverness Medea is symbolic of the clever woman imprisoned in a world of men. Her intelligence inspires both suspicion and cautious admiration. In the end, her cunning becomes her supreme weapon in her quest... Love Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, is not very well appreciated

in Euripides's Medea. Everywhere her hand is seen, destruction swiftly follows. Whether the love be romantic, paternal, or maternal, it alwa... LITERARY DEVICES: ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ ____________. DEFINITIONS: viii.drama: ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ _________________. ix.tragedy: ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ _________________. x.tragic hero: ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ _________________. xi.Prologue:_______________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ______________________________. xii.Parode: ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________. xiii.Stasimon (stationary song) : ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ _____________________. xiv.exode : ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________.

Important Quotes: " Jove, hear'st thou this, How i with scorn am driven away, How wronged By that detested lioness, who fangs Have slain her children?" no shi Jason said this! -- JASON: ___________________________________________________________ _________________ Paraphrased: ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ __________________. Chorus monologue at the endend: :Throned on Olympus, with his sovereign rod, Jove unexpectedly performs the schemes Divine foreknowledge planned....And thus doth this important business end." --CHORUS: ___________________________________________________________ ________________ Paraphrased: ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ __________________. "O thou wretched, False to thy oath, And to the sacred laws Of hospitality?" (84) --MEDEA: ___________________________________________________________ _________________

Paraphrased: ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ __________________. " May the Erinnys of our slaughtered Sons, And justice,whot requites each murderous Deed, Destroy you utterly?" (84) --JASON: ___________________________________________________________ _________________ Paraphrased: ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ __________________. The dialogue between Jason and Medea in the last episode: BREAKDOWN xv.At first the conversation starts out with Jason,the chorus, and Medea in Corinth. Jason is saying things to the chorus like:" where is this crazy lady who killed my children, the rulers of the country. She can only hide in heaven or underneath the earth." xvi.At first Jason does not believe the chorus that his sond are dead. xvii.Jason screams and makes Medea come out. Medea opens and says that Jason should just ask her quietly if he wanted to see his sons and the

murderer. She says she has gotten a chariot from her grandfather Helias,so, she isnt afraid of anything. xviii.Jasons names the things that she did wrong like kill her brother... and he says that no Greek woman would ever do such a thing. He calls her a she-lion because her nature was like that of the Tuscan monster. xix.She says that zeus knew about what she had done and what he had done to her. She says that she has made contact with his heart atlast because she sees how sad he is at the moment. xx.Jason and Medea argue whos fault it is tha the kids die and Medea ends uo saying that it is Jason's because of how he deceived his children and wife with a new marriage. xxi.Jaons says it will be easy for him and her to part and they both argue who shall take the bodies for burial and jason says he will take them and mourn over theor bodies. Medea says that she will take the dead bodies and bury the children a the sacred lands of Acraia.She plans to go live in the land of Erechtus to live with Aegeus ,son of Pandion. xxii.Jason hopes that his children's souls are FURIOUS and they destroy her. xxiii.She tells him, who would listen to you ,god or spirit, when you dont keep promises...and a man who deceives and lies to strangers. xxiv.She tells him to go home when he calls her a childkiller. xxv.She tells him:" your grief ahs not yet begun. wait till you are old. xxvi.She says :" Her mother loved them."

xxvii.Jason replies : "and yet you killed them?" xxviii.She says yes to injure you. xxix.Jason begs her to let him see their children and to feel their tender skin. xxx.She says, :"No your words are wasted". xxxi.^So Jason complains to Zeus ," Do you hear how im being driven off..." He wishes that he was never a father in the first place to see Medea kil his kids. xxxii.Medea's chariot comes and takes her away from the scene. xxxiii.Chorus: Zues on olympus dispenses many things. Gods often contradict our fondest expectations. What we anticipate does not come to pass. What we don't expect some god finds a way So with this story. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------MEDEA'S CASE NURSE "coming as an exile, she has earned the citizens' welcome; while to Jason she is all obedience - and in marriage that's the saving thing, when a wife obediently accepts her husband's will. Jason has betrayed his own sons, and my mistress, for a royal bed". TUTOR "Old love is ousted by new love. Jason's no friend to this house". "It's taken you a long time to learn that everybody loves himself more than his neighbour. These boys are nothing to their father: he's in love". Euripides seems not to be the misogynist that he is accused of being.

MEDEA "For women, divorce is not respectful; to repel the man, not possible. Still more, a foreign woman, coming among new laws, new customs, needs the skill of magic. If a man grows tired of the company at home, he can go out, and find a cure for tediousness. We wives are forced to look to one man only. And, they tell us, we at home live free from danger, they go'out to battle: fools! I'd rather stand three times in the front line than bear one child." Creon banishes Medea out of fear for his and his daughter's life. CREON "I love my country too -next only to my daughter ." MEDEA "Oh, what an evil power love has in people's lives! (Creon's love for his daughter causes hurt to Medea) MEDEA (to Jason) "You filthy coward! it's not courage, this looking friends in the face after betraying them. It is not even audacity; it's a disease pure shamelessness" "You must know you are guilty of perjury to me" JASON'S CASE JASON "I have often noticed what fatal results follow from ungoverned rage". "You would not give up your ridiculous tirades against the royal family. So, you're banished. However, I will not desert a friend. I have carefully considered your problem,

and come now, in spite of everything, to see that you and the children are not sent away with an empty purse, or unprovided". (Is this really sympathy? Acceptable from one's husband)? "But in return for saving me you got far more than you gave. You left a barbarous land to become a resident of Hellas; here you have known justice; you have lived in a society where force yields place to law. -here your gifts are widely recognised, you are famous". [Fair enough -but has Medea known justice from Jason? Is she the type to be persuaded by an argument that 'force yields to law'?] Jason's reason for marrying the King's daughter- !I wanted to ensure that we should live well and not be poor". (is this acceptable?). "Was such a plan, then, wicked? Even you women have reached a state where, if all's well with your sex-Iife, you've everything you wish for; but when that goes wrong, at once all that is best and noblest turns to gall. If only children could be got some other way, without the female sex! (Surely this is more likely to antagonise?) MEDEA'S REPLY "If you were honest, you ought to have won me over, not got married behind my back. But you're an ageing man and an Asiatic wife was no longer respectable". AGAINST MEDEA So Jason's case appears very weak indeed, but Medea has always been suspected of being capable of going too far in her revenge. NURSE

"I am afraid some dreadful purpose is forming in her mind. She is a frightening woman; no one who makes an enemy of her will carry off an easy victory". MEDEA "Children, your mother is hated, and you are cursed: Death take you, with your father, and perish his whole house!" "Oh, may I see Jason and his bride ground to pieces in their shattered palace for the wrong that have dared to do to me, unprovoked! O my father, my city, you and I deserted; my brother I shamefully murdered!" Creon allows Medea to remain for another day "Now stay here, if you must, this one day. You can hardly in one day accomplish what I am afraid of'. "By banishing me at once he could have wanted me utterly; instead, he allows me to remain one day. Today three of my enemies I shall strike dead: Father and daughter; and my husband". "I willingly deceived my father; left my house; There I put King Pelias to the most horrible of deaths by his own daughter's hands, and ruined his whole house". CHORUS (about Medea) "The fiercest anger of all, the most incurable, is that which rages in the place of dearest love". Her rage goes too far -"I will kill my sons. I will leave Corinth a murderess, flying from my darling children' s blood. Yes, I can endure guilt, however horrible; the laughter of my enemies I will not

endure". The CHORUS are Medea's conscience. "By every pledge or appeal we beseech you, do not slaughter your children! When your sons kneel to you for pity, will you stain your fingers with their blood? Your heart will melt; you will know you cannot. (When an apparent patch- up of the quarrel is made the Chorus hope for the best) May the course of evil be checked now, go no further!". MEDEA'S DILEMMA JASON "I want to see you, when you're strong, full-grown young men tread down my enemies. (Medea breaks down and weeps) What's this? Why these floods of tears ? MEDEA " It is nothing. I was thinking about these children" Medea sends the poisonous gifts "The gods, and my own evil-hearted plots, have led to this". "Dear sons, why are you staring at me so? You smile at me -your last smile: Why? : Oh, what am I to do? My courage is all gone I can't do it. I must steel myself to it". JASON arrives "I've come to save my sons, before Creon's family murder

them in revenge". (He is too late). I was mad before, when I brought you from your palace in a land of savages into a Greek home". --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Euripides was a citizen of Athens Sparta Mycenae Troy 2. Aeschylus' innovation, which led to the birth of Western drama, was the addition of the Chorus the second actor, making possible the staging of a dramatic story the third actor, making possible the staging of more complex dramatic situations the audience 3. What century was Euripides born in? fifth century, BCE third century, BCE second century CE fifteenth century, BCE 4. Greek drama could best be described as part of a religious celebration stylized, with masks and a Chorus very naturalistic, with efforts to make the representation as realistic as possible both stylized, with masks and a Chorus and part of a religious celebration 5. Greek actors wore nothing togas

masks all black and red 6. Greek plays feature a group of performers who sing, dance, provide exposition and interact with the other characters. This group is called the Chorus the Maenads the nymphs of Artemis Sappho's "maidens" 7. During his own lifetime, Euripides was the least popular of the tragedians, but the most popular comic writer the most popular of the Greek tragedians the least popular of the three great tragedians the least popular of the tragedians, but the most popular composer of epics 8. What historic event solidified Athens' position as a superpower among the Greek city-states? the rise of iron weapons the defeat of the Persian Empire the defeat of the Roman Empire the invention of a more efficient process for making olive oil 9. What was the name of the festival in which the tragedies were watched and judged? the Apollonia the Athenia the Aphrodesia the Dionysia 10. Near the end of Euripides' life, he left Athens for Macedon, embittered and weary he went to Syracuse to study a new form of drama, which he helped to refine he became the most popular of all the playwrights, finally

gaining the recognition he had always craved he left Mycenae for Athens, an angry but hopeful man 11. Chronologically, <i>Medea</i> is probably Euripides' first play, written when he was only twenty years old Euripides' last and greatest play one of Euripides' last three plays one of the earliest surviving plays of Euripides 12. Medea was the princess of Colchis, a kingdom on the eastern edge of the Black Sea Sheba, a kingdom in present-day Ethiopia Corinth, a city-state of Greece Xia, a kingdom in present day China 13. Medea's grandfather was Cronus King Aeetes the sun god Helius Pentheus of Thebes 14. Medea helped Jason to win the Golden Fleece the Lost Ark the apples of Hesperia the Trojan Horse 15. Medea helped Jason escape her father by using her magic to summon a kraken killing her own brother using her magic to create a storm killing her own sister 16. The Chorus of <i>Medea</i> is made up of the women of Corinth the slaves of King Aeetes the soldiers of Jason the Bacchae of Dionysis 17. Jason has left Medea for

the princess of Corinth a new quest Circe the Trojan Horse 18. Medea gets the Chorus to take a vow of silence regarding Medea's plans kill Jason deliver poison to Creon devour Creon 19. Creon, ruler of Corinth, decides to exile Medea and her children execute Medea's children imprison Medea make Medea his consort 20. Medea begs Creon for pity for her children twenty-four hours reprieve both pity for her children and twenty-four hours reprieve respect for her vows of marriage 21. Medea plans to murder the princess murder Aegeus kill herself all of the above 22. Jason enters. Jason could best be described as weak, uncertain, and apologetic cringing, hen-pecked, but determined noble, self-effacing, and compassionate condescending, opportunistic, and smug 23. Aegeus, king of Athens and old friend of Medea, has what problem? He is facing war with Sparta. He is about to set out on a quest. He is childless.

He has no wife. 24. Aegeus agrees to help Medea to return to Colchis help Medea kill the princess of Corinth grant Medea safe haven in Athens, provided that she can get there on her own help Medea to kill Jason 25. After Aegeus leaves, Medea reveals her plans to kill Creon kill the princess kill her own children all of the above