Barbarian In Medea

To the Greeks the term "barbarian", was meant to refer to anyone whose race was not of Greek origin, specifically it was meant for those races that endangered Greek civilization and culture. Since most "strangers" or "other" frequently attack Greek cities, "barbarian" became a crude term referring to a person seen as subhuman, uncultivated, a practitioner of all things unsavory and ruthless as humanly possible. Clearly, like the women of ancient Greece, a "barbarian” was not considered a member of Greek society. Most Greek plays only have women as non-essential characters or they don't have them at all. That is why Euripides' Medea, a tragedy where the woman is the main character, is intelligent because she is a "barbarian", is unexpected and

abnormal.
In addition to being a female, Medea's outsider-ness alienates her from the Greek society around her. Medea's characteristics mostly correspond to the Greek definition of a "barbarian", she has mystical supernatural powers, she comes from an unfamiliar place, she is seen as violent and she is clever enough to persuade people to do what she wants. Which is why most of the people from Corinth, like Kreon the king, are afraid of her. He states," I fear you, why wrap up the truth"(Euripides line 281). His fear is based on her foreignness, her way with words when she speaks, her passion and ability to do whatever she wants be it for good or bad. As a female “barbarian” who has been hurt by Jason, she portrays an image of the fact that “barbarians” think, have emotions, feel and are in control of himself or herself. This would have been petrifying to the Greeks because it contradicts what they think about barbarians and they would have to reevaluate their definition a barbarian.
The play begun with the nurse warning the audience about Medea, the nurse says that Medea is a "strange woman". Medea herself knew that she was not fully accepted by the community and she knew it was because she is a foreigner. Medea was once accepted, when she first came to Corinth, the nurse said that, " she has earned / the citizen's welcome"(Euripides line 12). However, when Jason abandoned her the friendliness of the Corinthians came to an end. Jason's betrayal and separation from her led to her now being labeled as "other". Afterword, the people of Corinth were afraid of her and what she could do, they classified her “barbarian”, and not being one of them made her an evil being with "special powers". Medea knew that she was supposed to adapt to her surrounding society, she herself explicitly says," Of course a stranger must conform "(Euripides line 221). Yet even with this observation of herself with an outsider status, Medea refused to adapt, and it was her inability to adapt and her separation from anyone who could have helped her that made this play a tragedy filled with death, a catastrophic consequence of both her betrayal of her country and Jason's betrayal of her.
It would have been easy for the people of Corinth to look past her foreignness because Medea does not seem like the typical outsider when we first meet her in the beginning of the play.

In his article, ‘The Polis In Medea: Urban Attitudes And Euripides Characterization In Medea 214-224’, Charles Lloyd States,

Though Medea is a foreigner, her first few lines (214-224) present us, nevertheless, with an arresting flexibility and adaptability to the Greeks and to their unique social and political creation, the polis. Similarly, her language reveals the kind of adroitness that is characteristic of the sophistication born out of the town life of the fifth-century Greek aristocrat. (115).

Meaning that she is deemed as civilized enough to be counted as one of them. He goes on to say that, "when Medea steps outside… she presents a cool and calculated affect, and in her speech she, as a woman, discloses a remarkably astute assessment of the essentially male attitudes that make the Greek polis "(115). Implying that she was accepted because she had not fail to uphold the standards of the polis, the community of Corinth. It was Jason’s estrangement from her that reminded the people of Corinth that Medea was in fact not one of them. Consequently, Medea’s division from the people of Corinth is because she is the victim of Jason’s

ambition.
When the nurse warns the audience that Medea will be irrationally passionate we were prepared, yet when she materialized she was tranquil and composed, talking in a controlled manner. The stage direction states," she is not shaken with weeping but cool and self-possessed"(Euripides 23). This display of Medea as a placid impenetrable woman instead of the helpless, emotional, rejected spouse shows that you were Euripides intentionally does not want the audience to submit to their automatic prejudice viewpoints. It advocates that the audience should get rid of any discriminatory biases that they have of foreigners and outsiders. This is amazing since this play would have been performed to Greek people. However, Medea belittled the notion that she should be crippled with grief over Jason's betrayal." Women of Corinth, I would not have you censure me / so I come"(Euripides 214-215). Medea knows that the challenges that she faces are that she is a woman and she is a foreigner. So when she first appears one of the first things she does is verbalize the difficulties of being a woman and generalizing it so that the women of Corinth empathize with her. “Surely,” she declares, “of all creatures that have life and will, we women are the most wretched"(Euripides 228-229). It is only after she universalize the pain of all women does she epitomize herself as a woman who personifies the destructive affliction caused by a man's ignorance of the difficulty of being a woman.
Medea emphasized her predicament of physical and emotional exile cause by her love of Jason and his betrayal of taken another women. Medea accentuates that women are the victims of the whims of men. Medea however does give in to her statues as a victim she coheres the chorus in to helping her assassinate their own royal family, using her foreignness and abuse as a tool, playing on their sympathy of being female. She portrays herself victim of a man, like all women when they marry she is a woman isolate from her family who must now live in a foreign place, their husband’s house.

I am alone; I have no city; now my husband
Insults me. I was taken as plunder from a land
At the earth's edge. I have no mother, brother, nor any
Of my own blood to turn to in this extremity.
So, I make one request. If I can find a way
To work revenge on Jason for his wrongs to me,
Say nothing (Euripides lines 254-261).
Even though Medea is not Greek her overwhelming anguish caused by her own betrayal of her own family and her need for vengeance because of Jason’s betrayal seems very much Greek-like.
Medea’s love for Jason that led her to execute acts that instantly denied her the ability to return home or to seek out past friends .The nurse states, " her lovely head, speaks to herself alone, and the wails aloud for her dear father, her own land and home, which she betrayed and left, to come here with this man [Jason]"(Euripides lines 29-31). For Jason, she murdered her own brother and manipulated her own people so that his own daughters murder Pelias. Guilty, she has taken refuge in Corinth and is now lamenting betraying her own family. Ironic, that she a disloyalty murderer of her family becomes the victim of a disloyal husband and is left without family.
To Jason Medea exemplifies the embodiment of a “Barbarian”. To him Medea validates his Greek beliefs of what the Barbarian is. Therefore, whenever he converses with Medea he uses his prejudices to degrades and verbally abuses Medea. When he states
I have often noticed - this is not the first occasion ­
What fatal results follow from ungoverned rage.
You could have stayed in Corinth, still lived in this house,
If you had quietly accepted the decisions
Of those in power. Instead, you talked like a fool; and now
You are banished (Euripides lines 447-452).

He is saying that her performance of acting out her fury makes her a barbarian who behaves wild and unruly. Jason seems to think that he saved her from living in a primitive uncivilized land by bringing the Corinth. He states,
…Allow me, in the first place, to point out
That 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 (Euripides lines 534-537).
His statement seems to say that she has now been enlightened by his society and that she is a now knowledgeable and polished foreigner, thanks his society and that she should be grateful. Even at the end of the play Jason still has his unchanged Greek bigotry of outsiders, which might have been reinforced by Medea’s murder of four people, including her own children. He declares,
In all Hellas there is not one woman
Who could have done it; yet in preference to them
I married you) chose hatred and murder for my wife ­
No woman) but a tiger; a Tuscan Scylla - but more savage (Euripides lines 1341-1344).

Medea’s violent and vengeful massacre confirms Greek notions of a barbarous foreigner. Ironically, it is this “barbarian” Medea who manipulates those same enlightened, and full of themselves Greeks into doing her bidding and following her master plan.

Similar, to how Medea’s love for Jason was her downfall, it is his ambiguous goal that led Medea to make him her victim. Rosanna Lauriola in her article ‘"Medea." Brill's Companion to the Reception of Euripides’ writes that
Medea...[is] a tragedy of the victimization of women who are also outsiders, ethnically “other”. Medea is such a victim. Her fight [is] against hostile circumstances and her inevitable end... There is neither final triumph not a real revenge, simply Medea’s thoughts on her own misfortune and destiny along with those of others (393).

Medea’s foreignness, highlighted by Jason’s rejection, led to her being a victim of alienation.
Perhaps, if Medea was not alienated from Greek society, and she had someone she could rely on arguing on her behalf, the conclusion of the play could have been different, but since she was isolated and alone Medea had nothing left to lose. So her wrath brought only devastation.
Thus, this play emanates with many messages; it is cautionary to the deceitful husbands to fear the wrath of a wronged woman, as well as, a memento that people need each other, if only for the sake of keeping our sanity.