I only read the intro and 'Medea' and not the 'Other Plays.' This Penguin Classics edition is neat because there are detailed notes throughout the play (noted at the back) explaining all sorts of stuff: how the tragedy would've been presented on stage back then, the backstory of the mythology behind it all, the critical reactions to certain passages throughout history, etc. There is ALSO a glossary at the back that explains the whos, whats and wheres of all proper nouns listed throughout the plays. This all makes for a very easy and informative/enriching reading experience compared to just reading the play dry and going, "Huh? Who is AEGEUS?" Did you know that the word 'panic' comes from Pan - one of the Greek deities attributed to causing madness?

So Euripides, along with Sophocles and Aeschylus, are the 3 main tragedians of Ancient/Classical Greece (all 3 in Athens mostly) as my "Western Humanities" text book points out. They all wrote tons of plays but not many survived. They'd present their tragedies at the Festival of Dionysus. At each festival they'd present 4 plays- the first 3 were tragedies (sometimes a related trilogy, other times not) and the 4th play was a 'satyr play' which was comic and oftentimes raunchy and grotesque - it was like a little dessert for the audience at festival's end. The people of Athens declared Aeschylus and Sophocles winners of the festivals more times than Euripides but it sounds like they maybe just weren't ready yet for Euripides. I don't know - I've already forgotten what I read about him 3 days ago.

The story of 'Medea' is pretty awesome - I guess it's about as tragic as tragedy can get. There are some enjoyable passages about a woman's place in the world of men - a lot of stuff that is still relevant and funny and scathing. The basic plot is that Medea is the wife of Jason (the guy with the Argonauts) and he really dicks her over - I won't say how. And she then spends the whole play seeking revenge. There are some brutal elements here that reminded me of "Oldboy" - the Korean film from a couple of years ago - the one that churned my innards in ways like no movie has before. It was one of 3 films in the director's Vengeance Trilogy. Medea reminds me of a character in the movie - I won't say who - but it's got one of the best movie endings ever- TRULY turning things up to 11!!!!!!!!!

Here's my favorite passage from 'Medea.' It's towards the beginning, after we've learned about what Jason the A-hole has done. The nurse is one of the caretakers of Medea and Jason's children.

NURSE: "Inside with you, children, it will be all right, into the house! And you do all you can to keep them out of the way; don't let them near their mother while she's in this depression! I've already seen her glaring at them like a bull, as if she wanted to do something awful. I'm sure of one thing, that anger of hers won't die down until someone's felt the force of her thunderbolt. I pray her victims are enemies, not those who love her!"

This reminded me of a woman I know!

i only read medea but wow, she's crazy, she literally killed four people in the space of one day, but revenge on her husband, yay! pretty weird, being so short, although it was hilarious reading medea's ridiculously crazy thoughts (seriously she's crazy)!

Euripides make up your mind either you hate women or you're a feminist you can't sit on a fence babe

Medea was mentioned in another book I recently finished (Anna O by Matthew Blake) so I decided to read that. I’m glad I did. Why haven’t I read the plays by Euripides before? Highly readable. Shocking at times for the reference to human sacrifices to the ancient gods, killing of children, revenge murders, power plays, and the treatment of women in Ancient Greece’s entertainment for the masses back then. All the characters in this book, Medea, Electra, Hecabe and Heracles are brought down by betrayal, guilt, jealousy and then all “lose the plot”.

Medea and Other Plays by Euripides (Book Review) and a bit of Anna O by Matthew Blake
https://youtu.be/uMp4Yg0EBi0

3.5 stars

-reminder men dont deserve rights

Amid the flurry of feminist Greek myth re-tellings constantly hitting the shelves, I enjoyed reading this collection of Euripides' plays, which focus on familiar characters from the Trojan War and the Age of Heroes. A criticism frequently levelled against the writers of classical antiquity is that women in these stories are passive and marginalised, in favour of celebrating male (martial or athletic) prowess.

Certainly, the female characters in these plays are trapped by cultural circumstances and shockingly ill-used, but I was intrigued by the central role Euripides accords them. Each of the three plays is named after its female protagonist and, with the exception of Helen, whom I found tedious, the women in question are assertive, angry, and transgressive, more akin to Furies than the dutiful wives and daughters one might expect to encounter in such texts. They are, of course, punished for such transgressions, but I still appreciate how vivid and well-realised these women are as characters.

"Medea" is my favourite of the three plays; the eponymous heroine is a complex character whose descent into madness is utterly mesmeric. I particularly recommend watching the National Theatre production that stars the phenomenal Helen McCrory; it's one of the best live performances I've ever seen. I really enjoyed "Electra" as well, but "Helen" was dull, hence my rating of three, rather than four, stars.

MEDEA!
Daughter of a King. Niece of nymph. Granddaughter of a god. Wife of a hero.
How many women have you known in any literary piece ever written, in all history of humanity, who incarnate all of these blessings together in one?
A fistful, maybe?
Killer of her own children! ( Ok. Now you are definitely left with ONE only.)
MEDEA!
A symbol. A metaphor. A precedent. A uniqueness. ONE and only in millennia. What else can one say.

“oh, I am a woman born to sorrow!”

OH. MY. GOD. MEDEA.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

Read for my English class, The Classics of Western Literature.

Medea: Anything for Revenge. Reading progress update: I've read 138 out of 206 pages.
 
Medea: You will regret what you did to me, Jason!
Jason: I regretted it alright
 
How great can your anger be? To what extent are you ready to hurt those who hurt you? Would you kill your own children to appease a great offense?
Medea is ready to do anything it takes to hurt Jason. She takes his wife, his children, and his happiness.
 
What I find fascinating in this play is that I am still sympathetic to Medea after all she did. It feels wrong to be on her side as much as Jason’s side, but she advances reasons to her actions that makes one wonder if she is right (except of course for killing her children since that is unforgivable). She is clever with words, and she manipulates the others the way she pleases. One is tempted to think that she went through a lot and that she was not thinking right, and even that she was in the verge of insanity. But the truth is she was not. She knew what she was doing, and she carried her plan from A to Z for one reason and one only: Revenge.
So is revenge a valid reason to go to extremes to hurt Jason? She argues that letting these children live would doom them. She believes that nothing was right anymore the moment Jason decided to share the bed of another woman. At some point, she was about to cancel her plan, but she realized it was too late. It’s like if fate was working against her, but she managed to have it her own way at the end. She got what she wanted: Revenge.