WHAT EXACTLY IS THE MEDEA MYTH?

Karl Kerenyi says, “Medea, […] wronged in her love and in her dignity as a queen and wife, appeared on the stage as a mortal woman, bearer of the common lot of womankind, and of the greatest injustice and ingratitude that ever fell to the share of any deliverer.”

Medea was immortal, a granddaughter of the sun Helios. She was also an enchantress. Her aunt, a daughter of Helios, was Circe who turned men into pigs, which identifies Circe with goddesses of the earth, of magic, of the dead (But living things must die to be reborn.) Thus Medea has powers of light and darkness. It is the dark powers that Euripides uses in his play, although Helios sends the dragon-drawn chariot to rescue her. The myth, which Euripides’ audience would have known, makes Medea’s intelligence (her power) essential to the success of the hero Jason, whose mission is to recover a golden fleece. Gold is significant because it shines like the sun and does not tarnish. It is eternal light. The entire story of the fleece centers around deception and death, however, and Medea’s part in it is particularly gruesome. She murders her brother—in some versions by cutting his body up and throwing the pieces behind her so that their father, who is pursuing Jason, will be delayed as he stops to retrieve them. She causes the daughters of Jason’s uncle to kill their own father—by cutting his body into pieces and boiling them in hopes of restoring his health and youth. (This is a way, found in a number of myths, of showing that disintegration must precede rebirth or renewal.) Medea, then, is associated with light and dark, delivery and death.

A major characteristic of myth is the exploration of the paradoxes and complexities of existence. By choosing the myths as subjects for their dramas, fifth century Athenian playwrights could present their audiences with opportunities to engage their emotions and exercise their minds as they encountered horrors which both give birth to and are born from the beauty of life. The Medea myth allows Euripides to use the salvific and destructive nature of love to encourage his audience to see the smoldering power of the oppressed, and the consequences of hypocrisy.


(Contributed by Nancy Bottoms, Ph.D.)