A hidden revolution: Medea

Today, we might not see Euripides's Medea as offending or off, but at the time of the art festival that it was originally written for, many of the ideas it brought up challenged the ideas and beliefs that greeks at the time had, and these conflicts are what caused it to place last in this contest, even thought today we study it extensively. Medea is a very complex and ingenious play, slyly developing a character much more intricate than any Greeks had seen before. Medea, the sorceress that all Greeks knew and loved, was spun completely, not only "ruining" their old story, but going against their ideas of heroism, and their gods. But it also challenged them to look at themselves and question their identity, not just as a person, but as an entire culture. He made them ponder their own identity, and in turn, forced them to contemplate if they were truly ready for the next revolution in literature.

Medea is as much a greek hero as Odysseus, the hero from the classic Homer epic _The Odyssey_, but she does not resonate with the Greek audience the same way that heroes like Odysseus and Achilles did. She possesses numerous heroic traits. First off, she seeks justice, much the same way that Odysseus did to the suitors. Its an urge that leads her, like many heroes to do horrible things. In Euripides's Medea she even goes so far as to kill her husband's new bride and her dad. But since that's not enough in her mind to make up for what Jason did to her, she goes ahead and kills her kids as well, right before Jason's eyes. It's the same cruel justice that Odysseus sought when he came back from his ten year journey and murdered all the suitors and his housewives who slept with them in cold blood. Yet when Greeks heard that story, it felt very...

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...d out very carefully her actions. To the reader, that's an even scarier thought, that maybe, someone in their right mind could justify killing those people.

Those progressive, morally challenging ideas were tough for the greeks to grasp at the time. Euripides presented them with a different kind of character in a time when very little was changed from the typical story line and plot and character design. He created a hero that went against all their ideas, a woman's place in society, who could be a hero, who did the gods support, and at the very core, he posed the question what really made a Greek, a Greek. It was well ahead of its time, a work of art that would take years to be fully appreciated. The complexity of the characters, how they confronted the status quo. And for all his work, Euripides finished last. Well in this case, he certainly got the last laugh.