Barbarian Witch and Princess of Colchis: Medea

1557 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The character of Medea in Medea

Medea is one of the most fascinating and most powerful women in Greek mythology. Medea is a woman of extreme behavior and extreme emotion. For her passionate love for Jason, she sacrificed all, committing unspeakable acts on his behalf. But his betrayal of her has transformed passion into rage. Whether divine or mortal, Medea was a priestess, a woman wise in herbal lore, a healer, a powerful, numinous, and luminous woman. What lends tragic literature its proximity to human nature is that the border between being a tragic villain and a tragic hero is extremely thin.

A powerful sorceress, it was Medea’s magical aid that enabled Jason to meet all of the challenges involved in obtaining the Golden Fleece. The first task facing Jason was to yoke fire-breathing bulls to a plow and use these animals to sow dragon's teeth into the ground as if they were seed (Bulfinch 122).Medea had given him a magic potion to protect him from the fire breathing bulls, allowing him the ability to yoke the bulls. The dragon's teeth produced a crop of armed men who immediately attacked the man responsible for their existence. In both cases, Jason triumphed, but only with Medea's help. To obtain her aid, Jason promised marriage and they stood "before the altar of Hecate," and called upon the goddess to "witness his oath" (Bulfinch 122). After obtaining the fleece, Medea turned her back on her father and family and accompanied Jason to Thessaly.

Greek myth makes it clear that Medea, who was the niece of the "immortal witch Circe," would do anything that Jason asked (Zarins 35). For instance, when Jason asked her to add more years to his elderly father's life, she used her magic to make him once again an active, much younger man (Zarins 35). This account i...

... middle of paper ...

...ision Publications, 2007. Google Book Search. Web. 28 April 2014.

Dexter, Miriam. "Colchian Medea and Her Circumpontic Sisters." Revision 25.2 (2002): 1-14. EBSCO databases. Web. 29 April 2014.

Federici-Nebbiosi, Susanna. "'Earth, Speak to Me, Grass, Speak to Me!' Trauma, Tragedy, and the Crash Between Cultures in Medea." Psychoanalytic Dialogues 16.4 (2006): 465-480. EBSCO databases. Web. 29 April 2014.

Melis, Karin. "Reading Medea and Hecuba: The Tragic in Unconditional Love." Dialogue & Universalism 15.1/2 (2005): 203-209. EBSCO databases. Web. 29 April 2014.

Toidze, Otar, Gia Lobzhanidze, Nino Chikhladze and Zaza Khachiperadze. "History of Georgia, Georgian Medicine and Medea." World Medical Journal 57.2 (2011): 64-66. EBSCO databases. Web. 29 April 2014.

Zarins, Kim. "Jason vs. Medea." Calliope 23.9 (2013): 35-47. EBSCO databases.

Web. 29 April 2014.

Show More
Related

  • A Comparison Of The Movie Jason And The Argonauts

    561 Words  | 2 Pages

    Initially, In the movie Medea is not the one with the magical powers to help Jason. Instead, Jason receives help even as a child from the goddess Hera. She grants him help that is set as a limit from Zeus. The gods are using this control because it is a game to them.

    Read More

  • Comparing the Characters of Lysitrata, Penelope, and Medea

    728 Words  | 2 Pages

    Courageous, powerful, and reckless, Medea left her home without her father's blessing to accompany Jason to the land of Corinth, after using her magic powers to slay the dragon that guarded the golden fleece. She also killed her own brother to slow Jason's chasers. For a while, Medea and Jason lived in harmony in Corinth where they had two children. Later, Jason left Medea for Kreon's daughter. She became grief-stricken at her loss and filled with rage at Jason's betrayal. This, is explained by her nurse during the prologue in World Literature Volume A (pg697), "she'll not stop raging until she has struck at someone",

    Read More

  • Medea And Sappho Comparative Analysis

    1160 Words  | 3 Pages

    Standards that women are held accountable and judged for while men it is acceptable for this behavior. In Medea 's situation, to prove her love to Jason she did whatever she needed to do to be with him and did not let anyone step in her way. She gave birth to two boys which would continue Jason 's bloodline however, that was not enough for Jason as he left Medea for his new Glauce. Jason 's main priority was to gain higher social status that leads to title, money, and land as well as having children as his legacy. Within Sappho she states, “Why am I crying? Am I still sad because of my lost maidenhead?” (Sappho, 36). After losing her virginity, she lost insight of her vision which she wanted her future to be as she received mistreatment from society including her relationship with her lover changing. In that result, within their situations they were incapable of maintaining their relationship with their lovers as well as love and sex not being enough to endure life

    Read More

  • Ovid And Medea

    1087 Words  | 3 Pages

    To begin comparing Euripides Medea and Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 7, we need to look at three components: context, characters, and themes. Both Euripides and Ovid tell the story of Jason abandoning Medea for another woman; however, they do not always share a perspective on the female protagonist’s traits, behavior, and purpose. Euripides portrays a woman who reacts to discrimination by beginning a battle to gain revenge all who harmed her, which she is prepared to follow through with even if it means resorting to the most despicable methods. Ovid, on the other hand, tells of a much less severe figure whose modest goal is only to persuade Jason to return. Despite these written differences, both of their Medea’s create trouble by acting with emotions instead of with reason, and as a result, put themselves in undesirable situations. Euripides and Ovid present two different sets of motivations for Medea's behavior wh...

    Read More

  • The Thousand And One Nights Vs Medea Analysis

    1471 Words  | 3 Pages

    Aphrodite, caring for only Jason, causes Medea to fall in love with him because of her known magical talents. To help Jason, Medea kills her own brother, betting that her father would stop for her brother’s body parts and allow her escape with Jason. While her escape plan works due to her innate sense of the way people react, Medea is now homeless. Still, the society expected Medea to give up everything for Jason, while he was allowed to ditch her with no social consequences. “And she herself helped Jason in every way. This is indeed the greatest salvation of all,-For the wife not to stand apart from the husband.” (Medea, pg. 616, line

    Read More

  • The Sanctity Of Oaths In Medea

    370 Words  | 1 Pages

    Medea is outraged that she sacrificed so much to help Jason, only to have him revoke his pledge to her for his own selfish gain. She asks him whether he thinks the gods whose names he swore by have ceased to rule, thereby allowing him to break his promise to her. Medea vows to avenge her suffering by destroying Jason's new family and his children. When Jason curses his wife for her murdering at the end of the play, she says to him, 'What heavenly power lends an ear / To a breaker of oaths, a deceiver?

    Read More

  • Essay On The Role Of Women In Greek Mythology

    784 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Clytemnestra hated Agamemnon, for he had sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia to Artemis, and to the wind god, Aeolus, in order to get fair winds for the Greek fleet to sail to Troy and many years of war” (Daly). In result, Clytemnestra had murdered her own husband Agamemnon for revenge because he had sacrificed their daughter. Medea commits many disgraceful acts. “Her first deed was to destroy Pelias, the king who had taken over the throne of Iolcus from Jason 's father. Medea suggested to the daughters of Pelias that, if they killed him, cut him up into small pieces, and cooked him in a stew, he would then be rejuvenated. She demonstrated her idea by cutting and cooking a ram and, by the use of magic, making a lamb spring forth from the pot. The daughters did as she suggested but, of course, Pelias did not survive. The people were so horrified at this deed that Jason and Medea had to flee the country” (Daly). When Medea and her husband settled in Corinth, Jason left her for the daughter of the Corinthian king Creon, Glauca. To get revenge from her husband, Medea murders her own two children and poisons the Corinthian princess, that Jason, her husband left for, and King

    Read More

  • Medea as a Heroine in Euripides

    344 Words  | 1 Pages

    When Jason left Medea to marry Glauce, Medea was plagued with sadness and then with anger. The man she loved, the man that she gave up her life for, had betrayed her. In the patriarchal society that Medea lived in, it was not acceptable for a woman to protest any decision made by her husband. Medea went against all social standards and took revenge on Jason for the wrongs that he had committed. She was willing to take any chance and sacrifice even her most valued possessions. Medea knew that the best way to avenge the wrongs of Jason was to kill Glauce and the children. It was a huge sacrifice for Medea to kill the children that she loved, but she allowed herself to look past that love and only see her hate and contempt for Jason. Medea was willing to go against every rule that society set, so that her husband wouldn't get away with leaving her for political reasons.

    Read More

  • Jason Brings His Own Downfall in Medea, a play by Euripides

    783 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Medea, a play by Euripides, Jason possesses many traits that lead to his downfall. After Medea assists Jason in his quest to get the Golden Fleece, killing her brother and disgracing her father and her native land in the process, Jason finds a new bride despite swearing an oath of fidelity to Medea. Medea is devastated when she finds out that Jason left her for another woman after two children and now wants to banish her. Medea plots revenge on Jason after he gives her one day to leave. Medea later acts peculiarly as a subservient woman to Jason who is oblivious to the evil that will be unleashed and lets the children remain in Corinth. The children later deliver a poisoned gown to Jason’s new bride that also kills the King of Corinth. Medea then kills the children. Later, she refuses to let Jason bury the bodies or say goodbye to the dead children he now loves so dearly. Jason is cursed with many catastrophic flaws that lead to his downfall and that of others around him.

    Read More

  • medea

    455 Words  | 1 Pages

    The problem set at the beginning of the play is that Jason has decided to marry another wife, Glauce. Medea is angered and will not let Jason off without punishment. The loss of Jason is not only a matter of passion; Medea has been completely humiliated by Jason's decision to take a new bride. Her pride shows again when she refuses Jason's aid. Though her situation is difficult, she would rather destroy all than accept help from one who has wronged her so horribly. Living as a barbarian among Greeks has made her more defensive, more full of hurt pride. To punish Jason, Medea had her children deliver poisoned gifts to the new bride, to kill her children, Glauce, and Creon. . Medea is not without feeling, nor is she a sociopath. She comprehends the difference between right and wrong, but chooses to follow the dictates of rage.

    Read More

  • Toni Morrison's Sula - Female Struggle for Identity

    2167 Words  | 5 Pages

    Cixous, Helene. "The Laugh of the Medusa."  The Critical Condition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends.  Ed. David H. Richter.  Boston:  Bedford Books, 1998. 1453- 66.

    Read More

  • Justice in Euripides' Medea

    434 Words  | 1 Pages

    The stories characters, Medea and Jason, can be seen as representations of two different responses to life. For hundreds of years, society has judged each others actions and reactions based on just cause. This story, to me, has a type of underlying theme that drags the reader into a moral debate, which forces you to really question your own belief system.

    Read More

  • Treatment of Women in Ancient Literature

    2408 Words  | 5 Pages

    Lawall, Sarah N. “Medea.” The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. 8th ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 690-720. Print.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in Medea by Euripides

    1283 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ironically, Medea’s actions are similar to a man when she takes charge of her marriage, living situation, and family life when she devices a plan to engulf her husband with grief. With this in mind, Medea had accepts her place in a man’s world unti...

    Read More

  • Aristotle’s Poetics

    1022 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Medea, Medea gives up her home, murdered her brother and tossed the pieces of his corpse and betrays her family to escape with her lover Jason. Against her father's wishes she helps Jason recover the Golden Fleece. Afterwards, Medea and Jason fall in love, get married and Medea gives birth and raises two sons. Unfortunately, Jason abandons Medea and marries King Creon's beautiful daughter. Medea alternates her role from a lover and partner in crime to an obsessive prideful monster. Me...

    Read More

More about Barbarian Witch and Princess of Colchis: Medea

Open Document