Greek Women In Medea

Euripides wrote Medea as a sort of promotion for his ideas. In it, he emphasized the gods, which he believed the people of Greece were ignoring. He also made sure to highlight the issues with the treatment of women. To do this, he took a commonly despised character, Medea, and warped the initial story of Jason and the Golden Fleece to show it from a female perspective. By making Medea the focus of the story, Euripides was able to explore the problems Greek women of the time faced. Though classic Greek dramas generally lack well-rounded female characters, Medea, as portrayed in Euripides’ Medea, shows depth of character through her intense emotions such as despair and rage, enforcing the idea that she was not content with the role of the docile housewife that Greek women of the time commonly held.
Her grief that results from Jason leaving are clear in lines such as, “Oh, oh! What misery, what wretchedness! What shall I do? If only I were dead!” (Euripides 20) and “…but this blow that has fallen on me was not to be expected. It has crushed my heart. Life has no pleasure left, dear friends. I want to die” (Euripides 24). While Medea’s despair is clearly present, it is also apparent how this despair transforms into anger. As is the case with a living person, Medea’s thoughts turn away from pitying herself and towards exacting revenge. She builds up an anger that will only be soothed by punishing those who have wronged her. She tells the chorus, “Today three of my enemies I shall strike dead: father and daughter; and my husband” (Euripides 28). As the story continues, Medea’s grief and anger give her the depth a real person would