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Medea (Euripides)

Written by StageMilk Team on March, 10th 2014 | Plays

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Medea Synopsis

(Euripedes, c.431 BC)

Euripedes’ play is a retelling of a classic myth that centres around the characters of Jason (leader of the Argonauts and seeker of the Golden Fleece) and Medea, his wife. The play is a classic revenge story; Medea’s role is that of the betrayed wife as Jason has left her and their children for Glauce, the daughter of the King, Creon. The play follows her as she moves from despair to anger and then to revenge, culminating in a tragic and shocking ending that has earned Medea her place in cultural consciousness as an unnatural woman and an unhinged child-killer.

Medea’s grief at being left by Jason escalates when she is threatened with exile by King Creon, and Jason doesn’t do much to help when he helpfully tries to make everything better by explaining that he will keep her on as a mistress when he is married, after all how can he pass up the chance to marry a princess when Medea is only a Barbarian (never mind that she left her home and killed a dragon for him…). Needless to say, Medea is not comforted, and refuses to accept. The race is on to exact her revenge before she is exiled.

In preparation, she makes a deal with the King of Athens that he will give her refuge in return for helping his wife conceive a child with certain potions she knows about. She then pretends to make peace with her estranged husband Jason and sends some robes and a coronet to his bride. However, the gifts are poisoned, and the murder of Glauce is accomplished before she has a chance to marry Jason. The King is also killed by the poison when he throws himself on his daughter’s corpse.

Medea hears the news and is pleased, but realises that the only way to truly punish Jason is to kill their children, thus depriving him of any comfort and ending his lineage. She believes that the pleasure of seeing Jason suffer will override the pain she will feel on losing her children. After she has stabbed the children to death, she confronts Jason and taunts him that she is not even going to allow him to hold the bodies; instead she takes them with her as she ascends to the heavens in the chariot of the grandfather – Helios, the sun god. She escapes to Athens, leaving Jason in despair having lost everything he valued. Anyone seeking a happy ending may be disappointed!

The play explores the themes of vengeance, passion and the different types of love – love of power, romantic love and the love of a parent for their children – and has been performed in various forms for centuries.

Medea Character List

Medea
Jason

Creon
Glauce
Aegeus

Messenger
Nurse
Tutor
Children
Chorus

Medea Monologues

Medea Monolgue

Medea: Oh children, my children, you still have
a city and a home, where you can live,
once you’ve left me in wretched suffering.
You can live on here without your mother.
But I’ll go to some other country,
an exile, before I’ve had my joy in you,
before I’ve seen you happy, or helped
to decorate your marriage beds, your brides,
your bridal chambers, or lifted high
your wedding torches. How miserable
my self-will has made me. I raised you—
and all for nothing. The work I did for you,
the cruel hardships, pains of childbirth—
all for nothing. Once, in my foolishness,
I had many hopes in you—it’s true—
that you’d look after me in my old age,
that you’d prepare my corpse with your own hands,
in the proper way, as all people wish.
But now my tender dreams have been destroyed.
For I’ll live my life without you both,
in sorrow. And those loving eyes of yours
will never see your mother any more.
Your life is changing. Oh, my children,
why are you looking at me in that way?
Why smile at me—that last smile of yours?
Alas, what shall I do? You women here,
my heart gives way when I see those eyes,
my children’s smiling eyes. I cannot do it.
Good bye to those previous plans of mine.
I’ll take my children from this country.
Why harm them as a way to hurt their father
and have to suffer twice his pain myself?
No, I won’t do that. And so farewell
to what I planned before. But what’s going on?
What’s wrong with me? Do I really want
my enemies escaping punishment,
while I become someone they ridicule?
I will go through with this. What a coward
I am even to let my heart admit
such sentimental reasons. Children,
you must go into the house.

About the Author

StageMilk Team

is made up of professional actors, acting coaches and writers from around the world. This team includes Andrew, Alex, Emma, Jake, Jake, Indiana, Patrick and more. We all work together to contribute useful articles and resources for actors at all stages in their careers.

Medea Synopsis

Medea Character List

Medea Monologues

About the Author

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