I've read this for second time. This time as part of complete reading of all the plays by the ancient greats. First Euripides play after all of Aeschylus and Sophocles. It's just sublime.>chorus prays to Helios to stop Medea as she is killing her children>when Medea is done Helios responds>he gifts her his chariot to escape>as Medea rides off Iason prays to the gods to hear his cries>the play ends without gods answeringContemporary women wish they could write about women as well as Euripides
>>25637634Yup. It’s very good.
>>25637634He's famous for his women tragedies. Wait til you read Ion, it has that Sophoclean dramatic irony.
>>25637634Dude, the dankest shit is the lineIason: [Medea? Where are my sons?]First time baby daddy asked after his kids in years. This is just asking for the north eastern theatre establishment to stage an urban teleplay. Bonus points if it is a musical. Americans fucking love their musicals.
>>25637813You kid but racism/ classism is actually a core part of this play. Jason’s stated reason for dumping her was that he wanted sons of Corinth’s nobility to carry on his name and lineage.
>>25637824Well there is that. Medea is also an older girl (at least 10 years older than him). Medea is also a known parricide and fratricide, a traitor, an anathema, and an abhorrent godless woman. He been fucking crackhos.She also isn't even Greek.And I'm not joking. I know your assumptions are generally valid about the quality of your interlocutors. I know why Trojan Women caused a shit storm, you know?
>>25637911>Medea is godless womanThat's just wrong. She is granddaughter of Helios and priestess of Hecate. In the play the gods give her their favor.>>25637813Another touch: When Kreon first talks to Medea and talks of the marriage between Iason and his daughter he tells her to leave and take her children with her. Iason wanted to discard both his wife and his children and thought he would get away with it. Medea is very much in the right and her judgment is the judgment of the gods. The whole "Ooooh, our sons will marry my daughters in future, d-don't worry teehee!" is cop-out Iason comes up on the spot and would be affront to the gods too as incestuous marriage (again works as interpretation of previous greek tragedies namely as reference to Oidipus).>>25637824It's deconstruction of the greek hero character who wants to achieve great things. Once Medea is no longer useful to Iason he discards her to marry into useful family, that's the talk of lineage and name. This is betrayal to Medea, to gods and to marriage. The gods forced Medea to fall in love with Iason and made her kill her brother and father - she bears no guilt from it (furies do not stalk her) until the Iason breaks the marriage, she then again kills her family and again the gods help her. Works as interpretation of Aeschylos' Oresteia. Iason breaking up with her, Iason acting like her murdering her family to help him in his quest is all affront to the gods. Even Kreon fearing her because she is intelligent (intelligence was gift from the gods) is a sin.
>>25638767>That's just wrong. She is granddaughter of Helios and priestess of Hecate. In the play the gods give her their favor.Helios gives parricides favour? Wew lad. I don't remember that from Gran Torino. Hecate sure, but Helios?Actually fuck it, I love your reading. Good job, makes me enjoy her more than Lady MacBeth even more now.
>>25638768As I said in OP: When the chorus prays to Helios to stop Mediea to fix the family, Helios responds. He spawns his chariot on the stage for Medea to get away to Athens safely BUT Helios spawns it only after she kills the children.Both Athena and Apollo give their favor to Orestes (who murdered his mother) in Aeschylos' Oresteia trilogy. During trial of Orestes the jury votes against Orestes, then Athena casts the deciding vote and the trial ends in a draw (thus in favor of Orestes). And Aeschylos in his plays didn't do deconstructions of myths, just faithful retellings.
>>25638773Escaping to Athens is a bit of an attack on Oedipus though, yeah? Like "Would you find this woman innocent Athens? Would you? Would you really find Hecate's girl innocent?"
>>25638778Well it makes sense as reference of Aeschylos Oresteia as I described above. The king of Athens promised Medea safe shelter no matter what but she had no way to get there (here comes Helios). So I consider this more of - Iason is so much in the wrong that not only all the gods disagree with him, but they are willing to throw away their own beefs to fuck him.It could also be Euripides implementing that as some way to critique how Athenians treat their own women. (Something akin to: Athena sheltered Medea who enacted the most cruel revenge on her husband who treated her how Athenians treated their women.)
>>25638793Also: At the end of Oresteia Athena offers Athens as safe haven to the Furies - goddesses of vengeance.Medea is embodiment of vengeance in the play - so not only does Euripides give the favor of gods to woman, but almost turns her into god.
>>25638801I wonder if his dad fucked about. But Iason is a turbo chud fuccboi, so you want him to suffer.
Man Hyppolytos was boring af. But I guess it's the first piece of literature about false rape accusation?
>>25637634>Iasonthere's no end to the larp
One thing I find interesting is that according to this version of the myth, Theseus wasn't even born yet after the voyage of the Argonauts. Aegeus' infertility is a major point that allows Medea to settle in Athens where she can cure him and allow to have progeny.
>>25639529Damn, Euripides must have really disliked Theseus then. In Hyppolytos he is idiot who caused death of his son. Wonder if there used to be Euripides play in between Medea and Hyppolytos that bridges the two.
>>25639548Theseus was like the George Washington of Athens and we all know that Euripides was obsessed with taking apart Athenian society and institutions so his hatred makes a lot of sense. Theseus created what to Euripides was an unjust and decaying society.
>>25639548>>25639566>Euripides must have really disliked Theseus Not necessarily. He's a positive character in both Heracles and The Suppliants. Euripides hated Spartans even more.
>>25638773What is the consensus on this, as far as Greek morality goes? Did the Greeks favor Madea themselves and that's why the Gods favor her in the play, or it was a way to show the Gods are evil?
The only thing Jason did wrong was not beat that bitch to death instead of ditching her. He was right. No one who kills their family for a stranger should be trusted or allowed to profit from it.
>>25639716You must differentiate between Medea (the mythical witch) and Medea (the tragedy written by Euripides about the witch) and you must understand Euripides' place among the three greek tragedy writers. Where the first two (Aeschylos, Sophocles) do direct "faithful" adaptations of popular myths (Aeschylos to promote then greek morality, Sophocles to promote democracy), Euripides usually picks obscure myths (or obscure versions of popular myths - Helen clone in Troy and real Helen in Egypt, Iphigenia saved by Artemis and whisked away to Crimea) and deconstructs them and the classic theatre to think about stuff or to have almost philosophical dialogue with the myth (this makes him very timelless yet at the same time very hard to fully grasp fully, yet easy to enjoy, makes his plays very post-modern - like Umberto Eco but actually good). Medea was archetypical evil witch to the greeks. When the Euripides play competed at Dionysia it ended dead last in the ranking. The play was very hated during the classic period and then beloved from hellenic period onwards (even in medieval Europe Euripides was the most popular). It however uses perfectly ancient greek morality it just switches it around and makes female character act like man. Typical for Euripides - as a way to show hypocrisy of athenian society and a way to understand the myths.Oath-breaking was the worst crime - and it's a crime Iason does (marriage=oath). It makes sense I guess, since before people had laws of any kind they gave each other promises and oaths. Murdering your family members was near the top of "worst crimes." Judging by Aeschylos plays man murdering female family members was seen as less bad than woman murdering male family members, or spefically son killing his mother compared to wife killing husband. It could by said that Iason by "divorcing" Medea is killing her as it means banishment for her and he offers her no shelter to seek out. Medea doesn't hurt Iason directly, she kills their children. Children (according to Aeschylus plays) were property of man (even before birth - father gives life and mother borrows it momentarily).Importantly however the play doesn't say who is right and who is wrong. It makes you first pity Medea, then understand her. And although Iason may seem as the villain the reader will pity him too. Even the king Kreon and his daughter who steal Iason and banish Medea you understand why they are doing (and Medea proves them right) and you pity their death. That's why the play is so wonderful it makes you wonder "Who was in the wrong here?" and you can argue any position. The position that the gods are needlessly cruel is valid also and is perfectly Euripides-like. Nowadays that all is wonderful but you can easily see why this all would be controversial back then - the tragedies were supposed to honor the gods.
>>25639804To add to this: There was a joke during the classic greek period of athens that Socrates helped Euripides write his plays. This isn't to be taken as a fact, more as a descriptor of how it must have felt to the normies to watch Euripides play. Deep, philosophical, without clear answers, makes you think.
>>25637634I've read it a few months ago but I was unable to appreciate it as much because Sophocle's Ajax spoiled me when I read it in the summer. The best book I've read all year, Ajax is sublime. And his tragedy might be even heavier than Medea's, because he gets nothing from his actions.
>>25639804This is very interesting. If you didn't already, I suggest you read about Sophocles' defense of Delphi, the cult of Apollo, and the divine order which was contested in Athens especially after Delphi's stance in the Persian Wars.
>>25639804>like Umberto Eco but actually good)So doubly good and supports Autonomia's political violence?
>>25639853>AjaxAh yes, Ajax, standing in line to be the Titus of the Greeks, but it was all a dream.
>>25639945Umberto Eco screams at you that he is genius.He keeps shouting: "Look at how much I know!"Euripides excepts you to be intelligent enough to recognize his genius. He winks at you: "Look at how much we both know."
>>25637634I prefer the Tyler Perry adaption.
>>25640011Try reading Eco sometimes as him desperately screaming "I know fucking nothing, all these things are nothing." It is a fun reading.I've played the social role of Euripides. If you want to work on really obscure memes you rapidly run out of communities or audiences who can recognize your wink. It is like Mapplethorpe's whip: few people see the wink. A bit like pissing in an ocean of piss. Thank you for your service.
>>25639804>"Who was in the wrong here?"Medea 100%. Psycho bitch.
>>25637634>Medea by Euripidesthere is also picrel for the patricians
>>25639435Fine, I'll call them Maddie and JJ from now on.
>>25641563>Maddie and JJWhere is the hood and what is Hellas ride? I look forward to your urban romance.
>>25637634Elektra and Herakles were my favourites from Euripedes.
>>25642115You'll know me from my pen name, Euripideez Nutz.
>>25637634I don't need to read a play about a dumb witch woman
