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An Argument Against The Performance of Medea in Public

Euripides ' Medea was first produced in 431 BC and describes Medea , the Princess of Colchis and a sorceress , who is betrayed by her husband and subsequently seeks revenge . It is widely believed that when the play was first shown to a Greek audience it wasn 't received favorably and subsequently , when the audience was asked to rate it , was awarded last place in the HYPERLINK "http /en .wikipedia .org /wiki /Dionysia " Dionysia festival in

431 BC . Whether or not this is due to the fact that the audience didn 't like the play or whether it was a simply a case of tough competition is unknown . There are , however , a number of elements of the story and the devices used within it , which may have led to criticism from an Athenian audience . Within this I will present some of these criticisms from the viewpoint of an Athenian male who is arguing that the play is unsuitable for public airing

I have just come from a viewing of Euripides ' Medea and I am appalled at what I have seen and heard . As I watched the play I was very confused as to who Medea really is . At the outset she is just as our society would expect her to be , a loving , devoted , selfless wife As you all know , women are not intended to be of social or political standing but we respect them greatly for their maternal and domestic power . At first I respected Medea too , a dutiful wife who reveres her husband in the appropriate way . In this shocking play however Euripides seemed intent on destroying the value of a woman 's place in society . He took a hard working , loyal and respectable homemaker and changed her into a murderous , revenge obsessed woman who is able to defy her very nature in to achieve revenge for the wrong done against her . Medea is disrespectful to the gender roles of our society and is an insult to our established conventions . The main character , Medea appears to exhibit both male and female characteristics and is certainly not portrayed , as a woman in Athenian society should be , as a submissive , maternal housekeeper . The dismissal of all womanly and motherly instincts by this character , and the acts that she seems capable of committing , are contrary to our very beliefs of women . Medea is a guiltless murderer , one who is even prepared to murder her own children , I shall murder my children , these children of mine if die they must , I shall slay them , who gave them birth (M207-213 . She as a woman in our society , is supposed to give and provide for life , not take it away

I believe that if Jason decides that he wants to divorce Medea and marry the princess of Corinth he has every right to do so . Women are subordinate to men and Jason , as a superior being , has the right to...

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