The ancient Greek tragedies, Antigone by Sophocles and Medea by Euripides, both contain compelling arguments conducted amongst its main characters. The tale of Antigone describes the struggle of a young women who is punished for disobeying mortals in order to respect the gods. Medea gives an account of a woman who seeks revenge after being tremendously grieved when betrayed by her husband. The main characters of both tragedies find themselves in heated debates with their male counterparts. Perhaps the most convincing arguments come from Antigone's claim to Creon regarding her innocence, and Jason's exchange with Medea. When Antigone is brought before Creon she admits to her guilt in disobeying the king’s edict. However, she says she …show more content…
Thus, it was essentially Aphrodite who orchestrated their marriage by making Medea fall in love with him and subsequently, credit would be due to the goddess. To the audience this remark seems extreme, to claim that the love Medea has acted to strongly on and used to rationalize her extreme behavior is not grounded in sincerity, but in fact a result of the intervention of the gods. However, this does an effective job at causing the audience to question Medea and she hence begins to be seen no longer as just the tragic heroine without fault. It discredits the basis for Medea’s arguments in claiming her love as so great as to go through such extreme measures. In formulating his arguments, Jason utilized the rhetorical appeal of logos. He gave logical reasons to back up his claims. It was his logical appeal to the audience that began to persuade them away from sympathizing purely with Medea. In contrast to Medea who used pathos and acts out of passionate rage, Jason’s cool and articulate arguments made Medea’s claims seem like that of a rampant child. Antigone employed the appeal of ethos in her arguments. Antigone was trying to convince the audience of her credibility and that she as making the ethical decision in disobeying