Medea 419this sacrifice and how she “willingly betrayed [her]
father and [her] home.” This act of abandonment
was no small matter, and Medea herself admits
that it demonstrated “more willingness to help than
wisdom.”
Now, after committing these crimes in Colchis
and Iolcus, Medea has landed in Corinth with her
beloved, only to see her husband take another wife—
the daughter of Corinth’s king, Creon. Though Jason
argues that he has taken a royal wife in order to pro-
vide financial security for his family and to secure
good faith with the royal house of Corinth, Medea
sees the marriage as an act of selfish abandonment;
hence, she “call[s] down wicked curses on the king’s
family” and thus dooms herself and her children to
exile, setting in motion the play’s tragic events.
It is worth noting that, in the discussion of
Jason’s abandonment of Medea in favor of a new
wife, Euripides attaches a comment on gender roles
and the discrepancy between acts of abandonment
considered acceptable for men as opposed to those
of women. Medea laments, “We women are the
most unfortunate creatures... she arrives among
new modes of behavior and manners,” ostensibly
abandoning her customs in favor of her husband’s,
while “[a] man, when he’s tired of the company
in his home, goes out of the house and puts an
end to his boredom.” She adds, “[W ]e are forced
to keep our eyes on one alone.” The sympathetic
chorus echoes her outrage, saying, “You sailed away
from your father’s home.... And now in a foreign
country... another queen has disposed you and is
mistress of your home.”
Jason is certainly culpable, for in Euripides’
account, Jason seems unaffected by the news that his
children are to be exiled along with Medea. Thus,
his rationalization for the new marriage breaks
down. Even Medea’s servants feel the sting of aban-
donment. The children’s tutor points out the fickle
nature of loyalty when he says, “Old ties give way to
new ones. As for Jason, he no longer has a feeling for
this house of ours.”
Giving in to her sense of rejection and her
feelings of abandonment, Medea then plots to repay
Jason many times over. She announces that she will
murder his new bride and her own children in order
to leave Jason without a family and home. Here,
the theme of abandonment transcends the realm of
interpersonal relationships, giving audiences insight
into Medea’s relationship with herself. She aban-
dons rational thought and behavior, and the chorus,
though still sympathetic to her plight, begs Medea
to take a more rational course of action as her cho-
sen course does not represent “the normal ways of
mankind.” Euripides makes it clear that Medea has
moments of lucidity but quickly dismisses them in
favor of rage (an unfortunate but completely human
response). What is superhuman is Medea’s abil-
ity to use her sorcerer’s powers to manufacture the
poisoned dress and diadem she sends to Jason’s new
bride. She sends the gifts via her children under the
guise of a peace offering, a plea to let her children
remain in Corinth. This sets in motion the death of
Creon’s daughter and Creon himself.
After making the children accessories to mur-
der, Medea rationalizes their murder, arguing that
they, like her, will find no safety in Corinth, thus
abandoning her maternal nature. The flaw with this
excuse is that Medea has planned her escape, having
made a deal with Aegeus to seek refuge in his house
in Athens. She could have taken the children with
her. In fact, she does leave with their bodies so that
Jason may not even give them a burial or mourn
them properly. Her goal is to leave Jason completely
and utterly abandoned. Her plan succeeds, for in the
end, Jason feels the pangs of loss as Medea abandons
him in Corinth, flying away in a dragon-drawn
chariot (the only true element of fantasy to invade
the narrative).
Appropriate to his status as a classic realist,
Euripides focuses not on the relationship between
gods and mortals but on the tragic potential inher-
ent within human relationships gone awry. Medea
abandons her homeland for love, and when that
love is betrayed by Jason, she plots to repay his
abandonment by leaving him completely and utterly
alone.
Adrian L. CookGender in Medea
Set in an Athenian society that does not treat
women equally, Euripides’ Medea provides a clas-
sic account of one woman’s struggle (Medea) to
engage in subversive actions to defy the oppressive