در درون تمامی زنان مده‌آیی نهفته است...

2023 Review
the scene off-stage, with Medea murdering her young sons is heartbreaking. It’s made harder because she had to put her plan in action after their lives are in danger as she got even with Jason for hurting her. It’s a very, very tragic moment .


I reread the translation by Robin Robertson published by Vintage, this was after reading a translation that was written roughly 100 years earlier by  Medea of Euripides (translator, Theodore Alois Buckley)

Just like when I read this in 2019, I noticed a contrast between the action that unfolds and the sympathy the play draws towards Medea. Back in 2019 I could not make sense of this contradiction but reading these translations back-to-back makes it clear that it’s Jason who is the guilty one for breaking his promise.

This is a hard one to get my head around, breaking a solemn promise today works differently to these stories, so it’s taken a lot of other reading for me to make sense of this.

In both translations the poetry is gorgeously rendered, Robin Robertson’s contemporary style in places is not an easy read as he paints a clear picture that shows what drove Medea’s anger. Theodore Alois Buckley’s style is a touch old worldly with a lot of thee and thy but tells the story just as well, Theodore Alois Buckley’s translation is also available in the public domain on Gutenberg.

Both translations were good to read to see Medea through the eyes of Euripides and his contemporaries.




2019 Review
Medea is Circe’s niece, a loose connection to Homer’s Odyssey.

The play by today’s standards is shocking but I wanted to revisit it to read it better.

The edition I read is translated by Robin Robertson published by Vintage. It starts with a short introduction that talks about Medea beyond her dark traits, Robinson points out how her behaviour is of a woman betrayed. With this in mind I read the play again, and closely.

I found the poetry in this translation full of warmth in contrast to the scenes that unfold, and by the end, as shocking as Medea’s actions are, I also felt sympathy. I am not sure if this is down to the translation or I’m reading this differently; as I now have a better understanding of the ideas of how oaths, heroes and gods fitted into that culture back then. It may also be down to reading Emily Wilson’s translation of Medea Seneca’s (included in Six Tragedies) which helped me to read this differently this time; it was down to this where I’ve meaning to read this play again. In Wilson’s translation of Seneca’s version showed a Medea I had never seen before, I always sensed there had to be more but until now, this Euripides’s version only gave me a vague sense of Medea’s vulnerabilities, as I previously did not have the understanding of this ancient world.

So, previously one of the things I had missed was how much Medea loved her children. I realise now it’s too simple to say her actions are about spite and jealousy when it’s a cultural ideology she is relying on to support her. The women around her, the chorus and the nurse, along with the tutor do not approve. Previously, these are the voices that I noted but it overshadowed that she was a victim here but these are my words as Medea is not willing to be made a fool by anyone no matter the cost, where her actions become more callous for keeping her emotions in check, but what I had previously missed was the gods approved.

La Medea de Eurípides es una de sus obras cumbres en el competitivo teatro griego.
Medea es un personaje único en la mitología griega pues es una de las pocas heroínas que teniendo tanto contacto con Hécate puede desempeñar tal papel para luego ser una villana, pero a pesar de ello, el sofismo de Eurípides que tanto está impregnado en sus obras nos hace pensar si realmente Medea actuó sin motivo alguno.
Al final el que lo sufre es Jasón, gran héroe griego cuya perdición al final fue la mujer que alguna vez amó.

Scrivere qualcosa su questa tragedia è molto difficile. Medea è la donna della passione, dell’Amore e della fedeltà sopra ogni cosa e a tutti i costi, anche quello di sacrificare i suoi figli. E’ la donna dell’odio feroce, del sentimento forte e senza mezze misure. E’ la donna ferita, sminuita, vilipesa e tradita per interesse. Giasone questo afferma: abbandona il letto di Medea per regalare ai suoi figli un futuro più roseo, più ricco sposando la figlia di Creonte, ma non si preoccupa della donna che abbandona. Nulla pensa di lei, viene scacciata come un cane rognoso e questo fomenta ancora più odio nel cuore della donna.
Medea è tutte le donne di oggi, estremizzata all’ennesima potenza. Una storia che da lontano ci riporta tragicamente all’attualità e che mai cambia. M Una denuncia sul ruolo della donna, che già Euripide affronta.

-عشق‌های کهنه سست‌تر از عشق‌های نو اند، و آن مرد دیگر یار این خانه نیست.

A Basic Medea
Review of the Dover Thrift Editions paperback (2022) of the Dover Publications original (1993) of the John Lane: The Bodley Head hardcover The Medea of Euripides (1944) translated by Rex Warner from the Ancient Greek language original Μήδεια (431 BC).

I read this 1944 translation in parallel with reading Liz Lochhead's adaptation Medea (2023) for the National Theatre of Scotland. (You can read my review of the latter at A Fierce Modern Medea (with a Scots Inflection).) I wanted to have a basic comparison in order to see how far Lochhead differed from the original. The Dover Thrift edition was ideal for that purpose, but it provided no background information and only a very few brief footnotes to explain some references in the text.

I'm also planning on reading a more recent translation in a more scholarly edition. The Oxford University Press's Medea (2006) with a translation by Michael Collier and Georgia Ann Machemer looks like an ideal candidate for that.


The cover of the Dover Thrift Edition (2022) which differs slightly from the orig. Dover Publication (1993).

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.

Jason was a dolt. This basic bro believed his own hype and knew nothing, absolutely nothing, about women. He conveniently forgot that his whole reputation was owed to Medea’s sorcery, wisdom, and savagery. And he stupidly supplanted her in his bed for the King of Corinth’s daughter and the prestige that alliance brought him. His hubris would cost him dearly.

When Medea attempted to refresh Jason’s faulty memory, to remind him who had created his legend —

”I saved your life, and every Greek
knows I saved it,
Who was a shipmate of yours
aboard the Argo,
When you were sent to control the
bulls that breathed fire
And yoke them, and when you
would sow that deadly field.
Also the snake, who encircled
with his many folds
The Golden Fleece and guarded it
and never slept,
I killed, and so gave you the safety
of the light.
And I myself betrayed my father
and my home…
This is how I behaved to you, you
wretched man,
And you forsook me, took another
bride to bed…”

instead of taking heed, Jason damns her with slight praise, then claims that it is she who owes him:

”You are clever enough — but really I
need not enter
Into the story of how it was love’s
inescapable
Power that compelled you to keep
my person safe.
On this I will not go into too much
detail.
In so far as you helped me, you did
well enough.
But on this question of saving me, I
can prove
You have certainly got more from me
more than you gave.”

Not having dug his grave deep enough, he tells her that he’s doing all this for her benefit:

”Next for your attack on my
wedding with the princess:
Here I will prove that, first, it was a
clever move,
Secondly, a wise one, and, finally,
that I made it in your best interest and the
children’s.
Please keep calm.”

Oh no he didn’t!! He went there! He told a woman to calm down — and not just any woman, but a sorceress, a servant of the dark goddess Hecate, who savagely betrayed her own father and murdered her brother for love of him, a woman he had just heartlessly betrayed. He certainly wasn’t considered a hero because of his brains!

Medea, for her part, regrets that the gods don’t assist young women from choosing badly in love:

”Why is there no mark engraved
upon men’s bodies
By which we could know the true
ones from the false ones?”

And she swears her vengeance:

”It shall not be — I swear it by her,
my mistress,
Whom most I honor and have
chosen as partner,
Hecate, who dwells in the
recesses of my hearth —
That any man shall be glad to have
injured me.
Bitter I will make their marriage
for them and mournful…”

This is an ancient tale, so no worries about spoilers. Medea goes on to use her guile to poison the princess her rival, who dies horribly along with her father the king, then steels her heart against pity, and kills her own children, Jason’s sons, depriving him of all, even their little corpses. She then proceeds to make the most amazing boss exit ever, in a chariot pulled by dragons, while Jason helplessly watches on, still railing against her. To which she replies,

”Hate me, but I tire of your barking
bitterness.

Medea was a bad ass. Jason was a punk too stupid to see what he was messing with. Too bad about the kids, but Jason got what he deserved.

Assoluta.
«Ho colpito al tuo cuore, così come dovevo.»

C’è poco da dire su Medea*, perché ci sarebbe veramente tanto da scrivere di un’opera che è assoluta: per modernità, universalità e attualità.
Un capolavoro, che ho avuto la fortuna di vedere rappresentato a teatro - Teatro Quirino nel lontano 1987 - interpretato da una splendida e unica Mariangela Melato.
(Giasone, e gli argonauti tutti, non pervenuti, regia di Giancarlo Sepe)



Del tutto all’altezza dell’opera le note critiche e il saggio introduttivo di B.M.W. Knox (primo direttore del Center for Hellenic Studies di Washington), che permette, oltre che culturalmente, di collocare temporalmente il dramma e di inquadrarlo storicamente e socialmente nella Grecia di Euripide, di comprendere il personaggio di Medea, eroina in tutto e per tutto, così come trattata e presentata nella tragedia, e di ricusare quello di strega, assegnatole nel corso dei secoli a causa della potenza delle sue azioni e della sua forza, per certi versi impensabili e ingiustificabili se attribuiti a una donna.

Ma Medea è una donna risoluta, ferma, scrive Knox, e la «fermezza della sua risoluzione è espressa nei consueti termini sofoclei dedoktai, dedogmenon - È deciso. È sorda a ogni persuasione, non vuole ascoltare (akouei). È mossa dalla tipica passione eroica, la collera, orge, l’ira (cholos). Esibisce l’audacia (tolma) e il temerario coraggio tipico degli eroi (thrasos) - e in quest’ottica il paragone che fa con Achille, e persino con Ulisse, è del tutto esplicativo - è spaventosa, tremenda (deine e selvaggia, come una belva (agrios). Come gli eroi dà importanza alla propria gloria: non vuole rassegnarsi alle ingiustizie e a ciò che considera intollerabile. […] È come un animale selvaggio, un toro, una leonessa.»
Medea è una donna sapiente, colta e intellettuale, non in grado di modificare sostanzialmente la posizione della donna nella società - che resta consapevolmente inferiore, e in questo la sua figura non può essere considerato un modello femminista - ma capace di suscitare spunti di riflessione negli ambienti più attenti ed evoluti: Medea è capace di far guardare alla donna come a qualcosa di diverso dagli uomini, a relativizzare quello che fino a quel momento era considerato assoluto indipendentemente da una questione di genere, che in ogni caso non sussisteva - la grande originalità dell’intuizione euripidea è da individuare, piuttosto, nell’affermazione della relatività di ogni tradizione culturale: se il dono della poesia, egli dice, non fosse esclusivamente maschile, altra sarebbe la fama della donna nella società.
Medea è cara agli dei, che la proteggono e sembrano sostenerla condividerne le decisioni a dispetto del conflitto interiore che la travolge, che però non è dettato, come potremmo pensare da una lotta intestina fra il bene e il male, bensì dalla consapevolezza dell’inevitabilità del suo gesto - Gli dei e io, pazza, abbiamo compiuto tutto questo - è un eroe che assolve funzioni di deus ex machina ponendosi alla loro altezza: theos, ma donna. - La Medea, scrive ancora Knox, non riguarda i diritti delle donne - e in questo, come dicevo, non può essere considerato un modello proto femminista - riguarda i torti della donna, quelli che fa e quelli che subisce.

La lettura di Medea segue prepotentemente quella di Salvare le ossa, e chi lo leggerà capirà perché, capirà quanto Jesmyn Ward sia debitrice (e sia stata ispirata) non solo a Faulkner ma anche al mito di Medea.

Fra interpretazioni, interpolazioni ed espunzioni, queste sono le occasioni in cui rimpiango i miei mancati studi classici, ma anche quelle in cui i miei studi artistici mi conducono per mano in territori in cui avrei paura addentrarmi per lasciarmi conquistare dalla Bellezza.

Qui delle riflessioni molto interessanti sulla figura di Medea.

*(Ehm, come non detto)

همین که نمایشنامه مده‌آ از ۴۳۱ پیش از میلاد تا به امروز مانده‌، خود دلیل قانع کننده ایست بر فوق‌العاده بودن آن.

فروردین۱۴۰۰

Medea begins with a displacement, and ends with a displacement.

Medea is perhaps one of the most ferocious female characters in all Greek tragedy, and I’m fascinated by her. Medea is a masterful manipulator, conniver, convincer: her stychomythia with Creon and later Aegeus each remind me of Clytemnestra’s with Agamemnon in Aeschylus’ Oresteia. She makes herself a suppliant to Aegeus, falling at his feet in honor. She kills her children out of revenge. Well, actually, her killing of her children functions here as somewhat of an attempt to cut her final ties. I think it’s interesting that the original myth does not actually even make her kill her children. Euripides has a tendency towards putting his female characters (most notably with Electra, who actually kills Clytemnestra rather than sympathizing with Orestes) into roles with less moral goodness, but more agency.

Yet she is also sympathetic. Medea’s role as the ‘other’ is downplayed, and her identity as a murderer sympathized with. Medea’s only ask for an oath to King Aegeus is that she never seeks expulsion: she desires a safe harbor, after one expulsion after another.

Jason is desperate for power, but throughout, it is Medea who has saved him, who has helped him, who has become a murderer to save him. When he betrays her, she has nothing to go back to, and an identity forever corrupted by her past deeds. Medea and Jason accuse each other of selfishness, a lack of love for their children, and a desire for power; both exhibit all of these traits themselves, but it is Jason, the familiar, whom we criticize most. The gods, towards the end, are on her side. (Interestingly, this ending, too, would’ve been a plot twist to Euripides’ original audience. Plot twists in this era of tragedy are rare.)

This play allegedly took third place in 431 BCE drama competition into which Euripides entered it, but by the end of the century, Aristophanes was cheerfully mocking it, and it made the ‘select’ plays of Euripides, the ones passed along.

Notable Lines (Rachel Kitzinger translation):
NURSE: The bonds of love are sick. (16)
NURSE: Moderation sounds best on the tongue. (127)
MEDEA: Oh, Father, oh, city, to my shame:
I killed my brother and left you. (168)
MEDEA: I’d rather three times over stand behind a shield than give birth once. (250)
MEDEA: And we’re women:
most helpless when it comes to noble deeds, most skillful at constructing every evil. (409)
CHORUS: Had Phoebus, lord of singing, given us the gift, we would have
sung in answer to men’s voices? (426)
MEDEA: O Zeus, you gave a sure test for false god:
why is there none for human baseness? (516-517)
MEDEA: Let me be thought the opposite of these:
harsh with my enemies, gentle with my friends. (805-806)
JASON: O, children dearest—
MEDEA: To their mother, yes. Not to you. (1396-1397)

Notable Lines (Paul Roche translation):
JASON: It was Aphrodite and no one else in heaven and earth who saved me on my voyage.
MEDEA: I would not touch anything of yours - how dare you offer it.
MEDEA: My heart dissolves when I look in their bright blue irises.
CHORUS: So ended this terrible thing.

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I wish Shakespeare had written a play where the Macbeths got divorced. You'd love to see what Lady Macbeth would have to say about it, right? The thing with marrying an asshole is, divorcing them isn't going to be pretty.

Here's the ugliest breakup in history, the most famous play by the nastiest Greek playwright, the sly and vicious Euripides. The plot is, Jason of the Argonauts, this guy:



has married an asshole. It was a good idea at the time: Medea slew an actual dragon for him, and who doesn't get turned on by a good dragon slaying. But now that the adventures are over, Jason wants to leave her for a more politically advantageous wife. The thing with dragon slayers is you get back to your kingdom and they're sortof traipsing around looking scary and you're like well, I feel like you're not going to be amazing at throwing feasts. Jason tries to break it to her easy: he's like listen, I'm going to marry this princess lady but here's the good news, your sons will be princes now! No seriously, that's what he says. He's such an asshole, and that's one of the fun things about Euripides, he'll take a hero like Jason and be like "But what if he was a douche?" Here's Jason in a more honest moment:

"To me, fame is the important thing.
I'd give up all I owned for it.
What good is a voice like Orpheus
If no one knows it belongs to you?"

So what happens next is that Medea is miffed.


"Men win their battles
On the field but women are ruthless when the bed
Becomes the battlefield. We've lain
In our own blood before...and have survived."

Medea shocked everyone when it was first performed in 431 BCE; it came in last in the competition that year. It's like when Hardy wrote Jude the Obscure and everyone got so mad about it that he never wrote another novel. There's a level of darkness that people just can't handle, and when you go there they blame you for it. This play is a dark place.

Look, Greek plays are sortof spoiler proof. There's only one thing that happens in each of them, really. Their characters spend the whole play deciding whether to do the thing, and then they always do the thing, and then the chorus is like holy shit, they did the thing, that was nuts, and then that's the end of it. (Which is one of the nice things about them: they take like an hour and a glass of wine to read. Maybe two.) You shouldn't even read Medea if you don't know how it ends. But here it is: in order to get back at Jason, she murders his new fiancee. Which actually that part sounds almost reasonable, right? It's pretty gory: the fiancee's dad (not that Creon!) comes and embraces her corpse but she poisoned the corpse, wow, so he gets
"Stitched
To it like ivy to laurel,
Felt his flesh ripping from his bones."

But we're not at the bad part yet. The bad part is that she murders her and Jason's children, too. Murders her own two kids. Euripides doesn't make you watch it - you never watch murders in Greek tragedies, it's always just howling off stage, and here you get to listen to her kids yelling, "Look! A knife!" and then screaming. It's awful.

The chorus, always weird and ambiguous participants in Euripides' plays, tries half-heartedly to talk her out of it:
Chorus: Suffering so great you’ll kill your sons?
Medea: Yes, anything to make Jason’s suffering worse then mine
Chorus: And turn your grief into wretchedness and misery?
Medea: Who can say? The time for talk has ended.

It's an Iagoesque villainy: she's uninterested in thinking this through.

Medea is one of the starkest and cleanest of the Greek tragedies. Euripides in particular tends to have slightly messier plots, but not here: this is one cold dagger stroke to the heart. It's troubling and unforgettable. Its reputation has blossomed since its inauspicious beginning; it was the most-performed Greek tragedy of the 20th century, with a reputation for winning Tonies for its Medeas. And here's the chorus again:

"Stronger than lovers love is lovers hate
Incurable, in each, the wounds they make."

So just keep that in mind, next time someone slays a dragon for you. That was nice of them, but what happens when you run out of dragons?

Μου αρέσει πολυ να γραφω κριτικές για αρχαιες τραγωδιες ή φιλοσοφικά κείμενα διότι μπορω μιλησω για αυτα ελεύθερα χωρις να φοβαμαι μήπως και spoilerιασω καποιον μιας και ολοι ξέρουμε λιγο-πολυ το τι συμβαίνει στο εργο.





Η Μηδεια ειναι η γυναικα που σκότωσε τα παιδια της,αυτο το ξέρουμε ολοι.Γιατι σκοτωσε τα παιδια της το ξέρουν οι περισσότεροι αλλα το τι υπήρχε στο μυαλό και στην ψυχη της θα το μαθεις μονο αμα διαβασεις τα λόγια της στην αρχαια τραγωδια.Που ξέρεις,μπορεί και στο τέλος να την συμπαθησεις κιολας μια σταλια.

Το εργο ξεκιναει οταν η Μηδεια μαθαίνει πως ο αντρας της,ο γνωστός Ιάσων,αποφασιζει να παντρευτει την ομορφη,ξανθη και νέα κορη του βασιλιά της Κορίνθου Κρεοντα,απορρίπτοντας ετσι απλα την ίδια.Δεν χαιρεται για αυτο ισα-ισα κιόλας που πίκρα βαριά  φωλιαζει στην ψυχη της και ξυπνάει μέσα της την εκδίκηση.Κατηγορεί και απειλεί τον βασιλια και την κορη του,βρίζει την μοίρα της και καταριέται την γυναικεία φυση της για την κακοτυχία της.Τα φαρμακερα λογια της φτανουν εως τα αυτιά του Βασιλιά ο οποιος την διατάζει να εξαφανιστεί απο την πολη του,μαζι με τα παιδια της,αλλιως θα την σκοτώσει.Καπως ετσι φτανει στην απόφαση να παρει εκδίκηση.

Το διαβασα σε μια μέρα ή για να ειμαι ειλικρινής το ξεκινησα γύρω στις δεκα το βραδυ και το τελείωσα κοντα τα μεσάνυχτα.Εχει μπει στην λιστα με τα αγαπημενα μου αρχαια κειμενα και την προτεινω ανεπιφύλακτα.

Η Μηδεια ειναι ενας καλο γραμμένος χαρακτήρας που αγαπαει τον αντρα και τα παιδια της,ισως τον αντρα της ενα τσαααακ παραπανω,και που ειναι καταδικασμένη να ζει σε μια εποχη που τις γυναίκες δεν τις ειχαν σε εκτιμηση.Ερχεται αντιμετωπη με την προδοσία του αντρα της ο οποιος επιλεγει να παρει μια αλλη γυναικα οχι μονο πιο νεα αλλα και σε καλυτερη κοινωνικη θεση απο αυτήν και απαιτεί να το αποδεχτεί η Μηδεια και να ειναι ευγνώμων κιολας που εξαιτιας αυτου του γαμου τα παιδια τους θα εχουν εμμεση συγγένεια με την βασιλική οικογενεια.Εκτος απο παρατημενη,προδομένη και πληγωμενη είναι και μοναχη της μιας που η πατρίδα της βρίσκεται μακρυά και δεν έχει κοντα της κανενα δικο της ανθρωπο.Νιωθει απο παντου χαμενη και ξεχασμενη.

Συχνά μετα απο κάποιον χωρισμο σκεφτόμαστε τι έχουμε κανει για εκεινον τον ατιμο που μας πλήγωσε και πόσο κορόιδα πιαστηκαμε,ακριβως αυτο κανει και η Μηδεια που για να μείνει μαζι με τον Ιασωνα πρόδωσε τον πατερα της.Οποτε βαλε την προδοσία,βαλε την στεναχώρια και μέτρησε και την τρελα που της τριγυρνάει το μυαλο και θα καταλήξεις στο συμπέρασμα οτι η δυστυχια του ερωτα μπορει και να σε κανει δολοφονο.

Η Μηδεια δεν σκοτωσε τα παιδια της απο εκδικητική μανια,τα σκοτωσε για να τα γλυτώσει απο την μανια των εχθρων της οταν έρθουν να την πιάσουν για το φονο του Βασιλιά και της κόρης του,διότι στο τελος τους σκοτώνει.Η σκηνη του θανατου τους ηταν εξαιρετική.Στην τελευταία σκηνη του εργου ο Ιασων και η Μηδεια ρίχνουν το μπαλάκι της ευθύνης για το αποτέλεσμα της ιστορίας τους ο ένας στον αλλον,αυτο ηταν η μοναδική στιγμη που ξενερωσα κατα την διαρκεια της τραγωδιας.

Αυτο ηταν το δευτερο βιβλιο του διαβασα το 2016!