Study Questions (2): Medea (Euripides)

Humanities 1010

Lange / Fall 1998

Choose one question or raise your own issue to discuss in a total of one page. Make sure you do not repeat yourself. Please type your answer.

1. It is often said that the mythology about women is created by men, and, in a culture dominated by men, it may have little to do with flesh-and-blood women. What is your opinion. Is Medea the representation of a "real" woman?

2. In the period between Homer and the tragedians, the city-state, with established codes of behavior, had evolved, and the place of women as well as of other disenfranchised groups in the newly organized society was an uncomfortable one. Do you think Euripides shows Medea (or any other character) in rebellion against the established norms of society?

3. Do you think that with Medea Euripides was attempting to create the idea of a strong, powerful personality? How far might this be projected by her actual speech and actions? What other sorts of emotions and characteristics does she show?

4. Do any of the human characters learn and gain wisdom? To what extent are the characters puppets of the gods and to what extent are they free human beings?

5. Read Medea's speech on pages 674-675 (lines 215-264), when she comments on childbearing and war. Does this speech promote or deflate the notion of arete?

6. Among Ancient critics, Euripides was the only tragedian to acquire a reputation for misogyny. In the comedy Thesmophoriazusae, by his contemporary Aristophanes, an assembly of women accuse Euripides of slandering the sex by characterizing women as whores and adulteresses:

Medea might not have committed adultery but one could argue she was portrayed as murderess of numerous men and her children. Would you agree that Euripides shows misogynist attitudes in this play?