مده‌آ عاشق‌ترین بود...اما این به ضررش تموم شد. درد خیانت و درد وجدان، این دردهایی که قابل درمان نبودند و مده‌آ رو دچار عذاب و جنون وحشتناکی کردند، جنونی که باعث شد تا دست به چنین گناه بزرگی بزند.
(خودم می‌دونم خیلی بد نوشتم.)

Machemer & Collier's Medea
Review of the Oxford University Press (OUP) paperback (August 10, 2006) translated by Georgia Ann Machemer and set in verse by Michael Collier from the Ancient Greek original Μήδεια (431 BC).

I went down the Medea rabbit hole after reading Laura Alcoba's Through the Forest (2024), a recent translation of a French language non-fiction novel which also involves maternal filicide and in which an extended story of the Medea mythology is included. So I then picked up Liz Lochhead's 2023 updated Scots adaptation Medea and a basic version in Dover Thrift Editions' Medea (which uses Rex Warner's 1944 translation). I looked for a scholarly translation and Collier/Machemer's version in OUP's Greek Tragedy in New Translations series looked ideal.

The OUP edition provides a very extensive Introduction (29 pages), Text Notes (26 pages) & Glossary (6 pages) in addition to the play translation. All of these provide for excellent background and context for the play's original performance and reception in Ancient Athens. That included the Medea mythology providing a historical basis for the enmity between Corinth (past of the Spartan confederacy) and Athens in the then Peloponnesian War. The shock of various other elements in the play provides a basis for understanding why Euripides came in 3rd (i.e. last) in that year's theatre competition.


A speculative drawing of the use of a crane in the Deus ex machina scenes of Ancient Greek theatre. Image sourced from the Ancient Theatre Archive Glossary at Whitman.edu.

I also went down a further rabbit hole in the investigation of the Deus ex machina appearance of Medea at the conclusion of the play. Normally it would only be Gods lowered from the crane machine in order to provide a last-minute miraculous solution to what would otherwise be an insolvable plot. Medea's appearance in a chariot loaded with dead bodies and pulled by dragons makes it seem more likely that she was instead simply on the roof of the skene (the building at the back of the stage in Ancient Greek theatre).


An illustrated representation of Medea's appearance at the conclusion of the play. Image sourced from The Art of Narrative.

I'm not done with Medea yet, as Rachel Cusk's adaptation Medea (2015) also looks intriguing, even based on the cover alone.

Trivia and Links
Some of the earlier English language translations of Medea are in the Public Domain. You can read several of the 19th century translations online at Wikisource.

Me encanta leer a los griegos. Los precursores de toda la literatura moderna, del teatro, la épica y el drama. Las tragedias griegas siempre me atrajeron luego de mi paso de un año y medio en la carrera de Licenciatura en Letras.
Allí pude leer varias obras de los aedos más famosos como Esquilo y Sófocles así también como las clásicas epopeyas de Homero, pero nunca había leído nada de Eurípides. Eurípides ganó el tercer puesto con esta obra en un certamen realizado en el año 431 A.C.
Lo que sorprende de Eurípides es que se sale un poco del molde tradicional de la tragedia con el personaje de Medea.
A qué quiero llegar con esto: a que usualmente en la Grecia antigua, las tragedias en general (no siempre), estaban reservadas para reyes y dioses mientras que las comedias se representaban a partir del resto de los mortales y clases bajas.
Y casualmente el personaje principal es Medea, una mortal con la única salvedad de que es nieta del dios Helio, el sol. De todas maneras, toda la trama gira alrededor de ella, Jasón, Creonte y unos pocos personajes más.
Más allá de que Eurípides dispuso ciertos cambios en la representación ante el público (sobre todo con el coro y en un realismo más marcado que Esquilo o Sófocles), todos los elementos que tan claramente nos enseña Aristóteles en su poética aparecen en Medea: eleos, phobos, hamartia, catarsis, etc.
Medea es una mujer movida por un deseo de venganza irrefrenable contra Jasón y lo lleva al extremo transformándose en una fría filicida. El realismo expuesto por Eurípides en la obra es total y creo Medea anticipa a algunos de los más tremendos personajes asesinos de muchas novelas y cuentos.
Me gustó mucho esta tragedia, aunque debo reconocer que es extremadamente machista y misógina. De todos modos y aunque paradójico, el feminismo de Medea es intachable, a pesar de reconocer que la mujer ateniense era controlada totalmente por hombre.
Espero este año leer más tragedias griegas, porque como dije previamente, me encantan...

Tragedia griega concebida por el dramaturgo Euripides, resulta no solo atmosférica y corrosiva sino brutalmente bella en su lenguaje y en la exploración de las pasiones humanas.

Medea, quien da título a la obra, es una hechicera que tras dedicar años a amar fervientemente a su marido y a ayudarlo en su cruzada por posición y poder, se ve traicionada por éste que decide tomar una nueva esposa. El lecho contaminado, el amor herido y el orgullo ultrajado desencadenan oleadas de ira, resentimiento y violencia cuyo final no podría ser otra cosa que fatal.

Euripides nos propone a una mujer poderosa, intensa, incapaz de sentir u obrar a medias. Su inteligencia, su magia, su ferocidad, la vuelven tan irresistible para el lector como letal para sus enemigos.

Discussions brought up by this play felt so fresh and relevent. Made me wonder if we ever evolve as human beings.

n  "No, per le tue ginocchia,
ti prego, t'invoco, ti supplico,
no, non uccidere i figli!
E dove di mano dominio
attinger potrai, dove d'animo,
che avventi la strage terribile
al cuor dei tuoi pargoli?
L'occhio volgendo su lor,
l'esterminio compier potrai senza lagrime?
Quando con supplici grida
dinanzi essi ti cadano,
tu non potrai con saldo animo
tinger la mano omicida."n

In ogni parola di questa famosa tragedia di Euripide c'è la pesantezza di un atto che rimane carico di tragicità anche nel mondo di oggi. Quante volte sentiamo di madri o padri che uccidono i propri figli in preda a un attimo di follia? Non è esattamente la stessa cosa per Medea, ma il concetto è simile. Medea è tradita e si sente umiliata. E solo facendo soffrire chi l'ha fatta soffrire può vendicarsi e andarsene dal paese. Punirà il marito Giasone uccidendo chiunque gli sia stato caro. La nuova moglie, il re e figli. E quando l'eroe vede lo scempio che la moglie ha compiuto sulla sua stessa prole, capisce di avere, in un certo senso, perso. Medea ha vinto. L'ha fatto soffrire. La madre amava i propri figli, ma l'odio per il marito era tale che voleva a ogni costo vederlo struggersi di dolore. Un capolavoro di poesia e drammaticità.

Thoroughly Modern Medea
Review of the Oberon Classics paperback edition (April 16, 2016) adapted by Rachel Cusk from the Ancient Greek language original (432 BC).

n  Jason: Look, you should be trying to find someone yourself. You're still an attractive woman.
Medea: Still?
Jason: For your age, yes. You should look on the internet. That's how everyone does it these days.
[his phone pings and he reads it then texts a reply.]
How's the writing going?n

Rachel Cusk's 2015 Medea is merged with the (currently) 990 editions of Euripides' play, but it is nothing at all like most of those translations and adaptations from the ancient Greek. Cusk's lead character is a modern day screenwriter, her Jason is an actor who had a breakthrough role thanks to a script by Medea, Jason is divorcing Medea in order to marry a younger woman from a rich family to further promote his career, the Aegeus is a film producer who will arrange a future production of a Medea script, Medea's new movie is a tell-all which will destroy Jason and bring about the downfall of his new family. Medea does not directly murder anyone.

It is all obviously inspired by Euripides original plot, but the text and situations are all modern day and the fates of the characters are not as in the original. 5 gossipy women are the chorus, they barely interact with Medea. There are 2 somewhat bratty boy children. Glauke (the younger woman) gets a rash from the jewellery which Medea passes on to Jason, the Nurse and the Tutor comment on the action as before. A house cleaner character is introduced to the plot as a completely new commentator on the action. The messenger character describes the off-stage action as before.


Poster for the Almeida Theatre 2015 production. Image sourced from the Almeida Theatre.

This was a thoroughly interesting interpretation of the play in which much of the suspense was the anticipation of how is Cusk going to modernize the situation without the horror of the original's ending. Really the most horrific aspect was the promotional material for the Almeida Theatre production. This was somewhat hidden in the poster above, but had a grotesque reveal in the cover of the 2nd print edition:

Image sourced from Goodreads.

Theatre Reviews
Magic in its Modernism: Rachel Cusk's Marvellous New Medea for the Almeida Greeks season by Charlotte Valori at Operissima, October 1, 2015.

Trivia and Links
There is an excerpted scene from the Almeida Theatre production with Kate Fleetwood as Medea which you can see here. Starting with the talk of a bicycle, you'll realize that this version of the play is set in modern times.

Rachel Cusk wrote an opinion piece for The Telegraph at the time of her version's staging. It is behind a paywall but you can see the headline and the beginning at Rachel Cusk: 'Medea is not psychotic, she's a realist.', September 30, 2015.

medea is truly the ancient greek prototype of gone girl- she walked in 400 BC so miss amy dunne could run in 2010 AD✋

Πρέπει να ξαναδιαβάζουμε ξανά και ξανά τις αθάνατες τραγωδίες του Ευρυπίδη αλλά και του Αισχύλου και του Σοφοκλή;
Τα έργα του Αισχύλου διακατέχει η έννοια της στααθερης και τιμωρού Θείας Δίκης, Ο Σοφοκλής παριστά τους μεγάλους κι υπέροχους ανθρώπινους χαρακτήρες. Ο Ευρυπίδης όμως αναλύει την ανθρώπινη φύση, τα ένστικτα της, τα πάθη της, τα κίνητρα της με ρεαλισμό. Το να ξαναδιαβάζεις τις τραγωδίες είναι σαν να βυθίζεσαι στην άβυσσο της ανθρώπινης ψυχής. Και να γιατί θα πρέπει να εμβαθύνουμε στα έργα των μεγάλων τραγωδών, ειδικά του Ευρυπίδη. Γιατί στην ουσία είναι μια ενδοσκόπηση στη δική μας ψυχή. Που ποιος ξέρει τι κρύβει....

n  

“Stronger than lover's love is lover's hate. Incurable, in each, the wounds they make.”

nEuripides writes a masterpiece of love, betrayal and revenge. The theme of Medea is the extravagant hatred, for the once bewildering love of the heroine for Jason was transformed when he repudiates her to marry another. Medea had given up everything for the man she was led by the Gods to love above even herself. She saved him from certain death, she left the safety of her kingdom, she even killed her own brother. All in the name of her love for Jason. To be abandoned for another woman?

Medea does not passively sit back and accept the injustice of Jason’s actions; she is definitely not silent in the face of injustice. When she feels persecuted by man or men she asserts her own power, assuming she has just as much right to act in this way as any man does.
n  

“Of all creatures that can feel and think,
we women are the worst treated things alive”

n
The play evolves from a heartbroken, melancholic Medea, betrayed wife who languished in bed and incapable of even raising her eyelids, apparently resigned to her fate, to an effervescent and sanguine woman with a terrible desire for revenge that will not stop at infanticide for the utter destruction of her once once-loved husband.

It is interesting to note that compared to the majority of Greek tragedies, in Medea the sins and errors committed by Jason and Medea are due to their own actions and not blame it on their destiny or on some avenging God.

Medea is certainly a terrible play, infanticide is not an easy theme, to read about a mother who kills her children is no easy theme.
n  

“They are the sun that lights his world
So I will plunge him into darkness.”

n
But revenge here has assumes life on its own, and should prevail.
n  

“I understand too well the dreadful act
I'm going to commit, but my judgement
can't check my anger, and that incites
the greatest evils human beings do.”

n
It is intimate, powerful and visceral. In the play Medea’s designation as a wife or mother is secondary to her own feelings as a woman. “A woman like me! What am I like that's different from you or any man." She appropriates an identity as an individual subject equal to the men who surround her, equally powerful and equally wrong. If she despises Jason for his ill use of her, does she not commit equal crime with so many innocents to obtain her revenge?

However, that is the essence of the play. Hard as the theme may be, this is the ultimate revenge drama. Once again, I couldn't help but be enthralled by the searing intensity of Euripedes' tragedy. Our tragedy, however, is that today we still witness crimes that remind us of this Greek play.
___

Part of BBC’s “100 Stories that shaped the World” list, I thought it would be fun to keep track of all the works I have read that are listed.
I have been feeling kind of down and blue since finishing my term paper (go figure) and thought a Greek tragedy would afford me some perspective. It didn’t fail. It has been a while since I last read a play, let alone a Greek play, but I am still surprised how much I enjoyed it; I even smiled a few times.
Euripides’ writing and the dialogue he creates for Medea with respect to women and their struggle in society is very forward and even modern. Obviously, as a tragedy, the main character’s actions and words are somewhat heightened (for some reason I don’t want to label them exaggerated) and provide so much richness to this short play.
Some of the phrases were quite humorous and seemed rather modern, which was interesting to observe.
Overall, a quite entertaining and short play that will have the reader forget their problems for a while. I highly recommend it.

ElliotScribbles

Euripides shapes the Jason/ Medea myth to his own ends in this one hour (plus a few minutes) Ancient Greek drama, and the result is at least interesting. I wasn’t wholly enthusiastic about the play itself, but the ending was extremely thought provoking given the various retellings of the myth that are available.