Jealousy Kills

Jealousy Kills A common belief in ancient Greece was misogyny which is the fear of women (Pomeroy 90). Misogyny brought about male superiority which will explain the actions of Jason, a main character in the story Medea by Euripides. Men in ancient Greece created a society where it was nearly impossible for women to live on their own because they could not get a job to support themselves. Men in ancient times were terrified of the idea of, “…a good wife like Deronia can murder her husband. These were the nightmare of the victors that someday the vanquished would or be and treat their exmasters as they themselves had been treated” (Pomeroy 90). In Greek society the father was never home and the mother raised the children, “in absence of the father, the mother substituted their son, alternately pouring forth her venom and doting on him” (Pomeroy 88). “The emotionally powerful mother impressed herself upon the imagination of the young boy, becoming the seed, as it were, which developed into the dominate female charters of the mature playwrights mind” ( Pomeroy 90), which explains why Euripides presents Medea, a main female character in Medea, as a sly, violent, and passionate person. The reader can assume Euripides was a victim of a repressed mother by the personality of Medea (Pomeroy 90). A main theme in Medea by Euripides is jealousy which is the cause of death for Glauce, Creon, and Jason’s and Medea’s two children. Jason remarries to a princess named Glauce to improve his social status and his family’s social status, but it provokes Medea’s jealousy who is Jason’s first wife. Jason decides to remarry because he believes that by marrying a princess Medea and her two

sons will gain a higher social status because they have relations to the royal family. Jason will also have more money to be able to provide more necessities to Medea and her two children so that they can, “…live comfortably and not go without anything…” (Euripides 65). Medea will also

Cited: Couch, Herbet N. “Euripides’ Rejection of Tragic Tradition.” Greek Drama. Ed. Don Norddo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc, 2000. 91-99. Euripides. “Medea.” Medea and other Plays. Ed. John Davie. London. Penguin Group. 1996. 45-87. Pomeroy, Sarah B. “Women in Greek Tragedy Versus Real Greek Women.” Greek Drama. Ed. Don Norddo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc, 2000. 91-99.