http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1346535...

This is a short but tough play. At the opening, Medea resents Jason for bringing her to Corinth and then abandoning her for the local princess: she swears revenge, and using her own children by Jason as unwitting tools, poisons both the king and the princess (and the kids too). It's a horrible but believable scenario, and Medea, despite her monstrous decisions, comes across as a sympathetic character.

If I were ever in the unlikely position of staging this, I think there are three big questions arising from the script. First off, Jason - idiot, philanderer, or Machiavellian? It's not at all clear from what Euripides gives us. I think I would prefer to have him making clear-eyed political decisions, and then devastated by Medea's sabotage. Second, the Chorus - in today's theatre, really you would want her to be a single female character, observing and commenting, but also participating and encouraging. And third, the slightly weird thing is that the entire play takes place in the street outside Medea's house - which therefore becomes not a place of domesticity but a mysterious location which people enter and from which they emerge changed. This may not have fazed the ancient Greeks who expected the three unities to be preserved, but a modern audience will wonder why we never see inside the buildings.

Anyway, it's a powerful character study of a wronged woman exacting revenge. Rather thrilling. ( )

This play is a landmark for me in Greek drama because it leaves you without much sympathy for any character. Everyone is out to get their own, and in the process they needlessly injure others. The Chorus in this play is also a particularly interesting group. ( )

Random words pertaining to this drama come to mind: Beautiful. Tragic. Sad. Infuriating.

It's basically the tale of the righteous versus the self-righteous. While Medea's actions towards her children were cruel and needless, you can sympathize with her and seethe at Jason's treachery. Jason is proud, pompous, self-serving, and a liar. He fails to recognize Medea's sacrifices for his sake. Instead, he wants to focus primarily on his own aims, and all of it is under the name of improving the situations of his abandoned wife and children. ( )

Dette er et av de gamle greske dramaer som tar utgangspunkt i mytologi, helter og guder.
Medeia blir sveket av sin mann Jason (jfr. Argo og argonautene) og som hevn forgifter hun hans nye elskerinne ved å forære henne en kjole med en krans som inneholder dødelig gift.
For ytterligere å hevne Jasons utroskap dreper hun også deres felles barn (de barna Medeia og Jason er foreldre til).
Dette er rystende lesning, og jeg kan forestille meg at det vil være smertefullt (men det er vel slik tilskueren oppnår 'katarsis'=renselse ifølge Aristoteles) å se en teaterfremstilling av "Medeia". ( )