Euripides has been considered a misogynist and has been accused of hating women, by various critics and even his contemporary Aristophanes, who blatantly calls Euripides a misogynist in his play ‘Lysistrata’.
Euripides utilizes the myth and tragedy of Medea, where originally she would have been considered a villain, where she kills her brother and betrays her father to help Jason, to show the plight of the 5th century Athenian woman. While Medea defied social norms and values of the Athenian culture, and was made to seem far from the ‘real’ Athenian woman, he still manages to still give her the essence of a Athenian woman. Even though we are constantly reminded that Medea isn’t an Athenian, she’s an ‘alien’ and embodies the opposite of what …show more content…
She has no place to turn to, not even her homeland as she had betrayed her father and mercilessly killed her brother while helping Jason steal the golden fleece and then subsequently running way with him. She states: “Where am I now to turn? To my father’s house, which like my country I betrayed for your sake when I came here? Or to the wretched daughters of Pelias? A fine reception they would give me in their house since I killed their father! This is how things stand: to my own kin I have become an enemy, and 35 Translation taken from Kovacs 1994. 22 by my services to you I have made foes of those I ought not to have harmed.” (502-508)36 After leaving everything behind and starting afresh, building a home and family and to have lost all that she worked so hard for is a blow to Medea, as it would be to any other person, or any Athenian woman. Euripides brings the troubles and hardship that women, mothers and wives face, to the attention of his audience and in a way gives women their own voice. He has cast Medea as a typical woman who is faced with extraordinary circumstances brought on by the man. This is especially prominent in Medea’s speech at the beginning of the play. She describes the position of women in the Athenian society, the vulnerability and the loss of agency married women experience in terms of their husband’s power over them and the dependence that women have on them. Medea …show more content…
Then she was transferred to the home of her husband where she was to fulfill her principal function, the bearing and rearing children. Medea shows the inequality of women in Greek society. The betrayal of Medea by Jason through his marriage to another woman enrages Medea. Medea compares the virtual slavery of women to the absolute freedom of men, showing the inequality and disempowerment of women in society at that time.
Jason’s problematic beliefs are put under the microscope. Jason airs his views about what all women want: "If they’re (women) happy in bed, they’re happy everywhere". By comparing Medea’s pure feminism to Jason’s selfish chauvinism, Euripides brokers sympathy and support for feminism, Medea. from the
Euripides utilizes the myth and tragedy of Medea, where originally she would have been considered a villain, where she kills her brother and betrays her father to help Jason, to show the plight of the 5th century Athenian woman. While Medea defied social norms and values of the Athenian culture, and was made to seem far from the ‘real’ Athenian woman, he still manages to still give her the essence of a Athenian woman. Even though we are constantly reminded that Medea isn’t an Athenian, she’s an ‘alien’ and embodies the opposite of what …show more content…
She has no place to turn to, not even her homeland as she had betrayed her father and mercilessly killed her brother while helping Jason steal the golden fleece and then subsequently running way with him. She states: “Where am I now to turn? To my father’s house, which like my country I betrayed for your sake when I came here? Or to the wretched daughters of Pelias? A fine reception they would give me in their house since I killed their father! This is how things stand: to my own kin I have become an enemy, and 35 Translation taken from Kovacs 1994. 22 by my services to you I have made foes of those I ought not to have harmed.” (502-508)36 After leaving everything behind and starting afresh, building a home and family and to have lost all that she worked so hard for is a blow to Medea, as it would be to any other person, or any Athenian woman. Euripides brings the troubles and hardship that women, mothers and wives face, to the attention of his audience and in a way gives women their own voice. He has cast Medea as a typical woman who is faced with extraordinary circumstances brought on by the man. This is especially prominent in Medea’s speech at the beginning of the play. She describes the position of women in the Athenian society, the vulnerability and the loss of agency married women experience in terms of their husband’s power over them and the dependence that women have on them. Medea …show more content…
Then she was transferred to the home of her husband where she was to fulfill her principal function, the bearing and rearing children. Medea shows the inequality of women in Greek society. The betrayal of Medea by Jason through his marriage to another woman enrages Medea. Medea compares the virtual slavery of women to the absolute freedom of men, showing the inequality and disempowerment of women in society at that time.
Jason’s problematic beliefs are put under the microscope. Jason airs his views about what all women want: "If they’re (women) happy in bed, they’re happy everywhere". By comparing Medea’s pure feminism to Jason’s selfish chauvinism, Euripides brokers sympathy and support for feminism, Medea. from the