2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
In the history of world literature there are several fatal women, one of which is Medea. The summary of this tragedy will deepen you into the atmosphere of Ancient Greece and tell about the complexities of human relationships and human vices.
Philosophy of Euripides
The ancient Greek playwright Euripides argued that man is wiser than the gods, so one of the first decides on a critical attitude towards the inhabitants of Olympus. Any supernatural power, as he believed, is the fruit of human imagination.
Euripides writes his famous tragedy called "Medea", reviews of which are still very ambiguous. The main merit of the author is to portray not an ideal person, but a vicious one who suffers and commits terrible crimes. The characters in the play are negative. Events develop in such a way that human suffering comes to the fore.
Characters. Biography excerpts
At Euripides the heroes of tragedies could be gods, demigods or mere mortals. Medea - granddaughter of the sun godHelios, daughter of King Eeta and the Oceanid Idia, whose parents are Oceanus and Typhis. It is curious that in the tragedy the sorceress is not able to correct the situation without massacre, because if she had punished Jason and his bride without the intervention of children, the end would have been less tragic. However, Medea becomes a humanoid bearer of vices.
The main characters have been married for twelve years and gave birth to two boys - Mermer and Feret. Their marriage was organized with the participation of magical power: the gods send love spells on Medea and she helps Jason and the Argonauts to get the Golden Fleece. In gratitude, the hero marries her. Although Jason was not a god, he came from a noble family and was the son of King Aeson, the ruler of the city of Iolka.
After meeting with Jason, Medea immediately shows her cruelty: she flees from Colchis with him and, in order to detain the angry Eet, kills her brother Apsyrtus, who was her traveler. Pieces of the body were scattered on the seashore - due to this cruelty that Medea showed, reviews of this legend are very mixed.
Glavka is the daughter of the Corinthian king Creon. According to Jason, he marries her not out of great love, but in order to ensure a happy future for his sons. Having become related to the royal heirs, the boys could later live among noble people.
"Medea": a summary of the tragedy of Euripides
The King of Corinth offers Jason to marry his daughter Glauca, to which he agrees. The actions of his wife Medea sometimesbegin to frighten the hero, and he is not averse to leaving her to her fate. The enraged woman calls her ex-husband ungrateful, because it was with her help that he obtained the Golden Fleece and regained his former glory. However, Jason says that he did his duty to her. He gave her two sons, and now he can live his life as he pleases. Perhaps this position will seem incomprehensible to women, so the reviews about Jason about the tragedy "Medea" may be negative.
The Corinthian king expels Medea, but she tries to take revenge on her ungrateful husband and decides on a desperate act - to kill the children so that Jason dies of despair. The villain persuades her boys to take Glauca a wedding gift - a poisoned crown, which instantly corrodes the face of the beautiful queen. A desperate father, who decided to save his daughter, dies after her. Medea dooms her children to death: the angry Corinthians would tear them apart, so the unfortunate mother herself decides to kill them and does not even allow Jason to say goodbye to them.
About the main character
Medea is not able to put up with humiliation, so she begins to hate her husband and is looking for a way to take revenge. She does not immediately decide to kill the children, but the boys' teacher instantly guesses about her plans. Creon comes to Medea - the father of Jason's future wife orders her to leave Corinth along with her offspring.
She makes the final decision about the murder after meeting with the childless Athenian king Aegeus. She understands how a man without offspring suffers, so she decides to take awayher husband has the most precious thing. Medea and Jason were once a happy married couple, until the fateful day came, on which the leader of the Argonauts did not make his harsh decision. The main character thinks about leaving the city alone - Aegeus offers her asylum, but the thirst for revenge is much stronger: with the help of her babies, she wants to take revenge on her rival. According to the myth, the children of Medea were killed by the inhabitants of Corinth, and Euripides changed the ending and portrayed that the unfortunate mother herself takes on this sin and reassures herself that the boys died a less terrible death. In the play, Medea changes her mind four times - this is the manifestation of the exceptional psychological skill of Euripides, which shows the complexity of human nature.
The trial of Medea or how the heroine was punished
Contemporaries of Euripides criticized the tragedy "Medea", reviews were most often unflattering. The main opponent was Aristophanes, who believes that a woman had no right to kill her children. If the Greek comedians and tragedians tried the heroine, the charges would be as follows:
Everyone knows that even the latest traitor, Keep and protect your child, And ready to throw herself into the jaws of a formidable beast for him.
But the granddaughter of Helios, the accused Medea, He considers his anger higher than life
His little ones - two sons.
She killed four at once:
Korinth lost the king and his heiress
And her unborn Jason descendants.
Murder is the worst sin, Killfour at the same time, And break the life of the fifth
For my own satisfaction-
The solution is rather crazy, Not reasonable, therefore incur
Severe punishment should Medea.
The content of the tragedy does not imply the existence of a trial, and the author allows readers to condemn or justify the heroine themselves.
Further fate of Medea
Despite the bloody crimes committed, the murderer did not suffer execution and hid in distant lands. In Athens, she married Aegeus and bore him a son, Medes. Soon, Theseus, known for his fight with the bull Minotaur, visits their house. Medea wants to kill the guest, but Aegeus recognizes him as his son in time and makes the villainess Medea leave their country. The summary does not tell about the further fate of the heroine, but other works tell about this.
On the island of the blessed, an exile becomes the wife of Achilles. The sorceress lives a long life, which is the most terrible punishment for her. She constantly lives in exile, tormented by the mere thought of a perfect atrocity, everyone despises her. Perhaps this punishment is worse than death - such is the fate of the granddaughter of Helios.
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