Medea

169 Pages·2006·1.521 MB·English

by  Medea., consort of Aegeus King of Athens (Mythological character) Medea, Griffiths, Emma, consort of Aegeus King of Athens (Mythological character) Medea, Medea

MEDEA
Medea, the sorceress of Greek myth and Euripides’ vengeful heroine,
is famed for the murder of her children after she is banished from her
own family and displaced by a new wife. Her reputation as a wronged
‘everywoman’ of Greek tragedy has helped engender her lasting appeal
to the modern age. However, this firmly rooted status has also caused
many of the intricacies of her timeless tale to be overlooked.
Emma Griffiths brings into focus previously unexplored themes of
the Medea myth, along with providing an incisive introduction to the
story and its history. Viewed within its context, the tale reveals fasci-
nating insights into ancient Greece and its ideology, the importance
of children, the role of women, and the position of the outsider and
barbarian.
The critically sophisticated analysis, expressed in clear and acces-
sible terms, proceeds to examine the persistence of the Medea myth
through ancient Rome to the modern day. Placing the myth within a
modern context and into analytical frameworks such as psycho-
analysis, Griffiths highlights Medea’s position in current classical
study, as well as her lasting appeal. A vivid portrait of a woman empow-
ered by her exclusion from society, alive with passion and the suffering
of wounded love, this book is an indispensable guide to a fascinating
mythical figure.
Emma Griffithsis Lecturer in Classics at the University of Manchester.

MEDEA
Emma Griffiths
First published 2006
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
© 2006 Emma Griffiths
Typeset in Utopia by Keystroke, Jacaranda Lodge, Wolverhampton
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 10: 0–415–30069–X (hbk)
ISBN 10: 0–415–30070–3 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–415–30069–8 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–415–30070–4 (pbk)
CONTENTS
Series foreword ix
Acknowledgements xiii
Illustrations xv
WHY MEDEA? 1
1 INTRODUCING MEDEA 3
The universality of myth 4
Layers of myth 6
Mythic biography 7
Genealogical table 9
2 MYTHOLOGY AND SOURCES 11
The transmission of myth: orality and literacy 13
Sources: archaic literature 14
Sources: Pindar 17
Sources: fifth-century tragedy 18
Sources: the Hellenistic period 19
Sources: Roman interpretations 20
Sources: literary compendia 21
Sources: visual art 22
Overview 25
VI CONTENTS
KEY THEMES 27
3 ORIGINS, FOLKTALE AND STRUCTURALISM 29
Origins 29
Accretion and substitution 32
Folktale 33
The ‘helper-maiden’ 35
Folktale, myth and old wives’ tales 37
Structuralism 37
Lévi-Strauss 38
Overview 39
4 WITCHCRAFT, CHILDREN AND DIVINITY 41
Witchcraft 41
Drugs and song 42
Divine magic 44
Rejuvenation 45
The many faces of ‘the witch’ 46
Children 47
Child killing and society 48
Social structures and reproduction 49
Medea and Herakles 50
Child-killing demons 51
Divinity and ritual 52
Medea and the gods 53
Medea and Hekate 54
Ritual 55
Overview 57
5 ETHNICITY, GENDER AND PHILOSOPHY 59
Ethnicity 60
Gender 61
The voice of the actor 63
Feminist readings 65
Philosophical considerations 68
Overview 70
CONTENTS VII
6 EURIPIDES’ VERSION OF MYTH 71
Medea in tragedy 71
Euripides’ Medea 72
Overview 83
7 MYTH ABOUT MYTH: FROM GREECE TO ROME 85
The visual tradition 86
Apollonios Rhodios 88
Medea in Rome 90
Ovid 92
Medea in Heroides12 92
Medea in the Metamorphoses 94
The metamorphosis of Medea 96
Seneca 97
Valerius Flaccus 98
Overview 99
AFTER GREECE AND ROME 101
8 MEDEA AFTERWARDS 103
Pagan mythology in a Christian world 103
Witchcraft and magic 104
Society and politics 105
Infanticide – ‘the modern Medea’ 108
Overview 110
9 MEDEA IN THE TWENTIETH AND TWENTY-FIRST
CENTURIES 111
Political drama 111
Personal drama 113
Film 114
Revisionist readings 116
The continued interest of scholarship 116
Overview – time and place 118
VIII CONTENTS
Notes 120
Further reading 122
Works cited 132
Index 141
SERIES FOREWORD
For a person who is about to embark on any serious discourse or task, it is proper
to begin first with the gods.
(Demosthenes, Letters1.1)
WHY GODS AND HEROES?
The gods and heroes of classical antiquity are part of our culture. Many
function as sources of creative inspiration for poets, novelists, artists,
composers, filmmakers and designers. Greek tragedy’s enduring
appeal has ensured an ongoing familiarity with its protagonists’
experiences and sufferings, while the choice of Minerva as the logo of
one of the newest British universities, the University of Lincoln,
demonstrates the ancient gods’ continued emblematic potential. Even
the world of management has used them as representatives of different
styles: Zeus and the ‘club’ culture for example, and Apollo and the
‘role’ culture: see C. Handy, The Gods of Management: who they are,
how they work and why they fail(London, 1978).
This series is concerned with how and why these figures continue
to fascinate and intrigue. But it has another aim too, namely to
explore their strangeness. The familiarity of the gods and heroes risks
obscuring a vital difference between modern meanings and ancient
functions and purpose. With certain exceptions, people today do not
worship them, yet to the Greeks and Romans they were real beings in
a system comprising literally hundreds of divine powers. These range