Medea And Hippolytus Analysis

In the plays Medea and Hippolytus, both by Euripides, the female psyche is a point of focus that is not explored in many other Greek tragedies. Through these plays, we can discover the way women were viewed in Ancient Greek society as well as their concerns. We can also pay attention to how women are portrayed differently between the two plays.In Medea and Hippolytus, the women we spend the most time with are Medea and Phaedra. These women have vastly different values, but the cunning and determination they use to get their ways are not as different as one may believe.

Phaedra’s values are much more closely aligned with what was expected of Greek women at the time than Medea’s. Phaedra believes that her children’s future is far more important

Medea shows this by masterfully manipulating those around her so that no one, save the chorus whom she convinces not to intervene, is able to see her true intentions until it is too late. Her determination comes into play when she decides to kill her children, whom she greatly values. Phaedra’s cunning is less obvious, but still present. She is able to devise a way for her to maintain her good reputation although her lust for Hippolytus had already been revealed. Phaedra’s determination comes into play when, in carrying out this plan, not only does she end her own life, but she also ends the life of Hippolytus. It is also important to point out that if Artemis had not relayed the truth of the matter to Theseus, Phaedra’s plan would have succeeded. The cunning in these leading female characters show that the Greeks knew that women can be intelligent. In fact, they feared this intelligence. In both of these plays, the females’ cunning is used to ruin the men around them. In Medea, Jason loses everything, the king and his daughter both die, and so do Medea’s male sons. In Phaedra, Hippolytus dies and Theseus loses his only son. Meanwhile, the only mortal woman to incur any suffering in this play is Phaedra herself, and she chooses her final fate. This theme is so obvious that Hippolytus points it out himself. “But a clever woman—that I loathe! … For Cypris engenders more mischief in the clever ones.” (Hippolytus, Lines