Medea

Medea is overjoyed at the unexpected good fortune of her run-in with Aegeus. His promise of safe harbor in Athens will provide cover for any crimes she commits, and she immediately plots the details of her revenge.

She will act like she has accepted the situation to Jason and will suggest the children stay with him in Corinth, if possible. Her sons will be “the bait [she’ll] use to trap / and kill the princess bride”; Medea will send them to the princess with a poisoned dress and diadem, purportedly marriage gifts from Medea (773-74). The next part is significantly more difficult, but Medea is determined. She decides that to bring down Jason’s house once and for all, she must kill their children: “Who then will dare to say I’m weak or timid? / No, they’ll say I’m loyal as a friend, ruthless / as a foe, so much like a hero destined for glory” (800-2).

Dismayed, the Chorus is compelled by “the laws of man” to urge her to stop, but Medea has made up her mind and sends the Nurse to fetch Jason (804). The Chorus laments that Aegeus’s Athens, a city blessed by the gods and renowned for its excellence in the arts, will soon admit a kin-slayer (815-39). However, they doubt that Medea will be able to murder her sons when the moment arrives (840-49).

The Nurse returns with Jason. Medea tells him that she has talked down her stubbornness and agrees that his choices were made for the good of their family. His only fault was in provoking her womanly weaknesses. She calls the children out to greet Jason and acts like her tears at the sight of them are residual effects from the quarrel with their father (876-84). Jason is glad Medea has come to her senses and tells his sons how blessed their lives will be now—which only makes Medea cry harder. Jason questions why she is so upset, and she plays it off as womanly emotional weakness, saying, “Remember, / as a woman my nature is to cry” (908-9). She urges Jason to convince Creon to let their sons stay in Corinth even if she must be exiled, and she suggests he appeal to his new wife to gain her father’s ear. She will even send the princess marriage gifts in the hands of her sons to persuade her. Jason agrees to try, and he and the children leave with the robe and diadem. The Chorus reminds the audience that Medea has poisoned them and will render the princess a bride of death. “Medea,” they say, “you’re wrong […] you’ll kill your sons, justice too harsh / for Jason’s heartless crimes” (971-73).

The Tutor enters the scene and confirms that the princess accepted the gifts and agreed to allow the children to remain in Corinth. He is confused at the distress this causes Medea. She responds, “Grief is all that’s left” (990). The Tutor misunderstands, thinking Medea is sad to be leaving her children behind; he reminds her that “Women lose their children frequently / so bear this sorrow as best you can” (994-95). His words inadvertently strengthen Medea’s resolve to kill her sons.

Addressing her sons upon their return from the princess, Medea laments that she will not be able to enjoy the traditional roles Greek mothers enjoy as their children grow up, particularly the rites associated with their marriages and their expected care for her in old age. For a moment, her deep love for them convinces her she cannot go through with their murders, but then she remembers that if she leaves them alive, her “foes / unpunished mock” her (1026-27). She sends the boys into the house and decides, “It’s too late. By all of Hell’s vengeful / demons I’ll not leave my sons / for my enemies to ridicule” (1035-37). The horror of what she is about to do overwhelms her, and she claims that “angry passions” have mastered her (1054-55). The Chorus wonders if it is better to never have children at all. They bring great joy to their parents but also great pain, especially when they die (1057-85).

A Messenger arrives, bringing awful tidings: The princess has been murdered. Medea eagerly requests all the gory details. The Messenger says that the princess accepted the gifts from Medea’s sons and donned the dress and crown immediately, dancing in joy, as if under a spell. Her happiness, however, was short-lived; she soon began screaming and writhing, foaming at the mouth. The crown suddenly burst into flames and set her alight. In a particularly graphic detail, the Messenger adds, “Only her father could have known / who she was. The eyes had melted” (1165-66). Creon embraced his daughter’s corpse and found his body melded to her enchanted dress, which ripped the flesh from his bones and killed him too. The Messenger is confident Medea’s punishment for these murders will come swiftly and surely. The Chorus still believes Jason deserved to be punished but laments the princess’s awful fate.

Medea realizes she now has little time remaining to kill her children: “If I hesitate now someone else / will murder them more cruelly. / There’s no way out,” she concludes. “They must die.” (1210-12). The Chorus begs the sun god Helios, Medea’s grandfather, to intervene, reminding him that the children are his family, too, and wishing Medea were not so hellbent on her anger (1227-46). They hear the children crying for help from inside as Medea murders them and compare Medea to Ino, another mythological woman who slew her children (1259-65).

Jason arrives at the house, ready to punish Medea for the deaths of Creon and the princess but not yet aware of what has happened to the children. Medea will have to “fly on wings to heaven,” he says, “to avoid what she deserves” (1271-72). The Chorus reluctantly informs him that Medea has killed their sons. When Jason tries to wrench open the door of the house, Medea appears above it, hovering dramatically in a golden chariot drawn by dragons.

She mocks Jason, telling him that Helios has sent his chariot and now “only words can reach her” (1295). Jason rails against her, wishing he had never brought a foreign “barbarian” who had already proven herself disloyal to her own family and country home to Greece. He attributes all of Medea’s reaction to her jealousy over his new marriage. He wants her to leave, but they again engage in a verbal debate, reiterating several of their past points. Jason argues that Medea is prideful and an awful mother; Medea argues that Jason is a disloyal oath-breaker. Jason begs to be allowed to give their sons a proper burial, but Medea refuses, insisting on taking them with her to expiate the murders and bury the bodies somewhere “safe / from my enemies who’d want to dig them up” (1354-55). She denies Jason even a chance to touch the corpses. As Jason appeals to Zeus for justice in vain, Medea flies away, unpunished, on her chariot. Jason wishes his children had never been born. The Chorus closes the play wondering, “Think of the story we’ve just listened to: / Who won? Who lost?”