Philosophy of Euripides
The ancient Greek playwright Euripides argued that man is wiser than the gods, therefore he was one of the first to decide to take a critical attitude towards the inhabitants of Olympus. Any supernatural force, as he believed, is a figment of human imagination.
Euripides writes his famous tragedy called “Medea”, reviews of which are still very mixed. The author’s main merit is to portray not an ideal person, but a vicious one who suffers and commits terrible crimes. The characters in the play are negative. Events develop in such a way that human suffering comes to the fore.
Characters. Excerpts from the biography
For Euripides, the heroes of tragedies could be gods, demigods or mere mortals. Medea is the granddaughter of the sun god Helios, the daughter of King Aeetes and the Oceanid Idia, whose parents are Oceanus and Typhis. It is curious that in the tragedy the sorceress is not able to correct the situation without bloody reprisals, because if she had punished Jason and his bride without the intervention of the children, the end would have been less tragic. However, Medea becomes a humanoid bearer of vices.
The main characters were married for twelve years and gave birth to two boys - Mermer and Feret. Their marriage was organized with the participation of magical power: the gods cast a love spell on Medea and she helps Jason and the Argonauts get the Golden Fleece. In gratitude, the hero marries her. Although Jason was not a god, he came from a noble family and was the son of King Eson, ruler of the city of Iolka.
After meeting with Jason, Medea immediately shows her cruelty: she flees from Colchis with him and, in order to detain the angry Eetus, kills her brother Apsyrtus, who was her traveler. Pieces of the body were scattered on the seashore - because of this cruelty that Medea showed, reviews of this legend are very mixed.
Glauca is the daughter of the Corinthian king Creon. According to Jason, he marries her not out of great love, but in order to provide his sons with a happy future. Having become related to the royal heirs, the boys could later live among noble people.
A short retelling of Euripides' "Medea"
“Medea” by Euripides summary:
The leader of the Argonauts, Jason, was to become the ruler of the city of Iolca in Greece. However, Pelias reigns there instead. To prove his rights and gain power, Jason is obliged to perform a feat. He will have to sail on the Argo to distant lands and, together with his faithful friends, bring the magical golden fleece from Colchis. The journey is dangerous, because a valuable trophy is guarded by a dragon.
The king of Colchis had a daughter, Medea, who was excellent at spells and magic. She fell in love with Jason and decided to help him pass all the tests. And they were not easy. To begin with, the young man had to plow the land with the help of bulls that spewed flame. Then he had to take the fleece from the dragon. To do this, Medea gave Jason a potion that could put the monster to sleep. But the king still did not want to give the magic fleece to strangers.
When the Argonauts sailed from Colchis with the trophy, Medea decided to sacrifice her brother’s life for the love of Jason. She killed him and scattered his remains all over the shore. This delayed the pursuers. Jason, who promised to take Medea as his wife, sailed back to Iolcus.
In Jason's hometown, Medea helps him seize power. She persuades the daughters of Pelias to kill their father, promising to then resurrect and rejuvenate him. But she deceived the girls, the former ruler is dead, and the throne for Jason is free. Daughters who kill their own father are expelled in disgrace. But the local residents were also indignant against Medea’s treachery. Therefore, she, Jason and their children are forced to leave for Corinth.
The local ruler is afraid of the sorceress, and Jason himself is already frightened by the treachery and cruelty of his wife. The King of Corinth invites Jason to break with Medea, marry his daughter and reign with her. He agrees. He explains to his wife that a new marriage will solve their problems and will benefit their children.
Medea is forced to leave, but she cannot understand Jason and thinks about how to take revenge on her husband for her exile and shame. She is hiding in Athens with King Aegeus. He is dejected by the absence of an heir to the throne. Medea promises to conjure a son for him if he allows her to live in Athens.
Through her children, Medea gives the new queen a wedding gift - a beautiful cloak and headband. These clothes were saturated with a poisonous mixture, so the young princess burned alive along with her father, who tried to help her.
“Medea”: a summary of the tragedy of Euripides
The king of Corinth invites Jason to take his daughter Glaucus as his wife, to which he agrees. The actions of his wife Medea sometimes begin to frighten the hero, and he is not averse to leaving her to her fate. An angry woman calls her ex-husband ungrateful, because it was with her help that he mined the Golden Fleece and regained his former glory. However, Jason says that he fulfilled his duty to her. He gave her two sons, and now he can live out his life as he pleases. Perhaps this position will seem incomprehensible to women, so reviews of Jason about the tragedy “Medea” may be negative.
The Corinthian king expels Medea, but she tries to take revenge on her ungrateful husband and decides on a desperate act - to kill the children so that Jason will die of despair. The villainess persuades her boys to take Glavka a wedding gift - a poisoned crown, which instantly eats away the face of the beautiful queen. A desperate father, determined to save his daughter, dies after her. Medea condemns her children to death: the angry Corinthians would tear them apart, so the unfortunate mother herself decides to kill them and does not even allow Jason to say goodbye to them.
Euripides "Medea" in abbreviation
Euripides "Medea" summary for the reader's diary:
The Greek hero Jason sails to Colchis to obtain the Golden Fleece. However, getting it is not so easy. The king's daughter Medea, who knows witchcraft, comes to his aid. With her help, Jason receives the Fleece and sails away, taking Medea with him. To delay her pursuers, the girl kills her brother and scatters pieces of his body along the shore.
Returning to Jason's homeland, Medea persuades the king's daughters to kill their father. After this, the sorceress will supposedly be able to return him to the young. However, after the murder she does nothing, and the people expel the ruler’s dishonest daughters. Now Jason's reign is not threatened, but after some time the inhabitants of the city rebel against Medea.
About the main character
Medea is unable to put up with humiliation, so she begins to hate her husband and is looking for a way to take revenge. She does not immediately decide to kill the children, but the boys’ teacher instantly guesses her plans. Creon appears to Medea - the father of Jason's future wife orders her to leave Corinth along with his offspring.
She makes the final decision to kill after meeting with the childless Athenian king Aegeus. She understands how a man without offspring suffers, so she decides to take away the most precious thing from her husband. Medea and Jason were once a happy married couple, until the fateful day came when the leader of the Argonauts made his harsh decision. The main character is thinking about leaving the city alone - Aegeus offers her refuge, but the thirst for revenge is much stronger: with the help of her little ones, she wants to take revenge on her rival. According to the myth, Medea's children were killed by the inhabitants of Corinth, and Euripides changed the ending and depicted the unfortunate mother taking this sin upon herself and reassuring herself that the boys died a less terrible death. In the play, Medea changes her decision four times - this is where Euripides’ exceptional psychological skill is demonstrated, which shows the complexity of human nature.
Summary: Medea
The tragedy of Medea originates from the myth of Jason “Argonaftika”, when the heir of Iolcus, Jason, was forced to sail on the ship “Argo” to distant Colchis for the sacred fleece in order to regain his throne. Power in Iolka was in the hands of a relative of Peleus. In Colchis, the hero met the sorceress Medea, the daughter of the local king (son of the Sun). Medea and Jason fell in love with each other, and the girl, with the help of witchcraft potions, helped her chosen one get the fleece. When sailing from Colchis, the girl killed her own brother and scattered pieces of her body along the shore.
The pursuers lingered, collecting the remains, and the lovers fled. In Iolka, the cunning Medea tricks the daughters of Peleus into killing their own father, promising that she will resurrect him young. Peleus's daughters were exiled after the murder of their father, and it would seem that nothing threatened Jason's reign. The people rebelled against the witch's wife. Taking their children with them, Medea and Jason fled to Corinth. The King of Corinth offered Jason a way out of this situation. Jason will divorce his witch wife and marry the king's daughter. By this he will save not only himself, but also innocent children. Jason himself was already afraid of Medea, so he agreed.
For Medea, her husband's betrayal was a strong blow. She is asked to leave Corinth, but the woman has nowhere to go. In Colchis she is the murderer of her brother, in Iolka she is the witch who killed Peleus. Medea finds shelter with the Athenian ruler Aegeus, who went to the oracle to find out why he has no heirs. Aegeus heard an incomprehensible answer from the oracle. Medea knew that Aegeus would have a son, Theseus, because of whom Aegeus himself would later die. She, taking advantage of the situation, promises Aegeus that he will have children if he gives shelter to Medea. Having received shelter, Medea decides to destroy Jason’s family in the bud. It speaks of pride and jealousy. Before leaving Corinth, Medea lulls her husband's vigilance, pretending that she has come to terms with her situation. She has prepared a gift for Jason's young wife, a cloak and a headband, and orders that her children present them to their stepmother. The children gave the poisoned robe to their stepmother and returned to Medea. The mother cries, says goodbye to the children, but out of pride and resentment she kills Jason’s heirs, otherwise others would have killed them.
The homewrecker, having thrown on her cloak, admires herself in the mirror, and suddenly her clothes burst into flames, a poisonous flame pierces her body, devouring the queen. The king's father rushes to his daughter, the daughter's body wraps around the father and the flame burns both.
Jason breaks into Medea's chambers to save the children, but it is too late. The mother, with two dead children in her arms, rushed off in a chariot. Jason shouts after him: “You are a lioness, not a wife! You are the demon with which the gods struck me!” - “Call me what you want, but I hurt your heart.” - “And my own!” - “My pain is easy for me when I see yours.” - “Your hand killed them!” - “And first of all, your sin.” - “So let the gods execute you!” This ends the tragedy of Medea and Jason. According to another version, Jason’s children were stoned to death by the Corinthians when they tried to hide in the temple after the death of their stepmother and her father. But in order not to bear the glory of child killers, the Corinthians persuaded Euripides to make their own mother the murderer in his tragedy. Of course, it is difficult to make a mother a murderer of her own children, but Euripides succeeded. No one knows what fate dealt with Jason.
Please note that this is only a brief summary of the literary work “Medea”. This summary omits many important points and quotes.
The further fate of Medea
Despite the bloody crimes committed, the killer was not executed and disappeared into distant lands. In Athens she married Aegeus and gave birth to his son Medus. Soon their home is visited by Theseus, famous for his fight with the bull Minotaur. Medea wants to kill the guest, but Aegeus recognizes him as his son in time and makes sure that the villainess Medea leaves their country. The summary does not tell about the further fate of the heroine, but other works tell about this.
On the island of the blessed, the exile becomes the wife of Achilles. The sorceress lives a long life, which is the most terrible punishment for her. She constantly lives in exile, suffers from the mere thought of the crime committed, everyone despises her. Perhaps this punishment is worse than death - such is the fate of the granddaughter of Helios.
