Medea Gender Inequality

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Gender inequality has been a topic of debate all throughout history in numerous cultures. As seen throughout Greek and Roman mythological literature this was no different, we often notice the role gender plays and the differences between the two. Men are often seen as heroic, majestic, strong and powerful people, with great leadership and other attributes while women often seen as negative and troublesome symbols. Throughout this paper the focus will be on how women affected a male dominated society specifically looking at Medea in Euripides along with other works of literature as well. A question that is often asked is “were women fairly represented in ancient Greek mythology?”. While there is substantial evidence that sexism existed within …show more content…

Jason had hoped to advance his position by remarrying with Glauce, the daughter of the king of Corinth, Creon. Jason was never looked upon as he should have been, he was a well-respected man while his wife was left alone, no one caring for her or feeling any empathy. Medea then curses her own existence as well as those of her own children. Jason accuses Medea of overreacting to the situation in which itself is appalling. As it should be seen, no matter the sex, anyone abandoning their family due to greed should be highly frowned upon. Medea had not over reacted to anything, the man she loved had left her and their children for the hopes of marrying another women and becoming more powerful. Medea finds Jason to be spineless, and refuses to accept any of Jason’s offers to help. Medea later plots a plan of revenge that includes the murder of her own children, she believed that the pain it would cause her would not outweigh the satisfaction she would receive from causing Jason to suffer. Medea sees out her plot for revenged in which ensues the deaths of Glauce, Creon, and her two children. These deaths leave Jason cursing his lot, realized everything hope he once had had now been annihilated, Medea’s plot for revenge was more than successful as she then fled the scene in a chariot provided by her grandfather the Sun-God. This shocked many as this had shown a side to women that they had never seen before. Disobedient, cunning, and vengeful came to be from Medea, traits often found in men were seen firsthand in a

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