Medea Revenge Research Paper

Revenge, in most cases should not be the answer, but in certain circumstances, it might be the only option to truly get back at the person who has caused harm. In Greek mythology there any many examples of the act of revenge, however none come to close to the jarring actions Medea took. Euripides, a talented playwright who wrote around 90 plays during his lifetime, bring to life the character of Medea in the play of Medea. Power has the ability to affect decisions and how people think, and in this case it caused Jason, Medea’s former husband, to leave Medea and their two children to marry the daughter of Creon, who is the king of Corinth. As a form of revenge on Jason, Medea set out to ruin his life by murdering their two children and his

As explained in the stories of the Golden Fleece, Jason was set out to complete a number of impossible tasks in order to claim his father’s throne, but it would not have been possible without the actions of Medea. Firstly, she betrays her own father and gives Jason a magic type of ointment in order to be able to accomplish his mission, which was given to him because it seemed impossible to actually accomplish. According to PBS,” Aeetes is confident the tasks are impossible but unbeknownst to the king, his daugher Medea has taken a liking to Jason”(“Jason in the Argonauts,” 2005). This was not the only instance she betrayed her family in favor of Jason, because when her half- brother was sent to track Jason and the Argonauts down, Medea tricked her brother into thinking they wanted a treaty and that is when Jason stabbed him in the back which killed him. As stated from the book 4 of Apollonius’ Argonautika, “And so they two agreed together on everything; and straightway Aeson’s son leapt forth from the thick ambush, lifting his bare sword in his hand; and quickly the maiden turned her eyes aside and covered them with her veil that she might not see the blood of her brother when he was smitten”(452-481). Doing this action, Medea not only was an accomplice and saw the killing of her

In the middle of the argument Jason tells Medea,” There ought to have been some other way for mortals to procreate - the female race could vanish!”(Euripides, 573-574). Jason clearly means that if children were able to be born without the assistance of women, that he would clearly want that and in his mind the world would not need females anymore. Also during this argument, he mentions that a girl’s sex life determines their mood and affects their actions when he states,” You women have come to such a point that you think, if things go right in bed, you have everything; but if your sex-life is suffering, then you become vicious enemies of all your best and dearest”(Euripides, 569-573). This is another misogynistic comment made by Jason that shows he thinks that women revolve around sex and that they need it so they can be happy. This is the behavior Jason keeps showing to Medea, infuriating her and only increasing the chances of her taking revenge against him. Lastly, Jason did not have the courage to tell Medea of his plan to leave her for another woman before he left her. This is explained many times throughout the play, most explicitly when Medea states,” if you had not been evil you would have persuaded me first, then