Euripides' "Medea" and the Problem of Spiritedness
Author(s): Aristide Tessitore
Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Review of Politics, Vol. 53, No. 4 (Autumn, 1991), pp. 587-601
Published by: Cambridge University Press for the University of Notre Dame du lac on behalf of Review of
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Euripides' Medea and
the Problem of Spiritedness
Artstide
Tessitore
The Medeais Euripides' most famous play and perhaps his most enigmatic.
The unwieldy characterof the play'scentral figure and the movement of the play
as a whole defy the traditional categories of tragedy. Attentiveness to the usually
neglected political dimension of Medeasheds new light on some of its persistent
enigmas. It also suggests that Euripides was less than sanguine about the kinds
of excesses the impending war with Sparta was likely to call forth from citizen
soldiers. Most importantly, it brings to light Euripides' sober assessment of an
enduring political problem: the irreducibly ambiguous characterof spiritedness,
the warrior virtue par excellence.
I. AMBIVALENCE
Euripides'Medeademonstrates a clear irony of history; its original lack of popularityhas been reversedin subsequent generations
such that it is very likely the best known and most influential of
Euripides'plays. The play has survived the transplants of culture
and time and continues to captivate audiences with its riveting
power. For all that, the play, or more precisely, its main character,
persistentlyelicits an ambivalent reaction on the part of audiences.
Medea is hardly a character whom one could love. Although she
is capable of inspiring contemporary audiences as a champion of
women's rights, even this enthusiasm is inevitably dampened by
the heinousness of her crime. Medea is less an object of love and
source of inspiration and more an object of fascination.
Although one might be tempted to dwell on one or another
side of her unwieldy character, any attempt to do justice to the
Euripidean portrayal of Medea requires attentiveness to both the
inspiring and shockingelements which are somehow sewn together
in Medea's soul. The tendency to simplify Medea by renderingher
more consistently as a heroine or villain, although intelligible,
betrays Euripides'play.' Euripides has presented the Medea myth
1. It is not difficultto find representativesof these extremes. B. M. W. Knox
makes a convincing case for Medea's heroic stature in "TheMedeaof Euripides,"
YaleClassicalStudies25 (1977): 193-225. Denys L. Page seeks to render Medea's
crime intelligible by depicting her as a barbarian and a witch. Medea(Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1938; rpt. 1964), esp. pp. xvii-xxi.
587
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in such a way as to retain and perhapseven augment an intractable
ambiguity about the play's central figure.2This ambiguity has not
only proved to be a source of continued fascination through the
ages but, as I will argue, points to the underlying political teaching
of the play.3 On the eve of one of the greatest military conflicts of
all time, Euripides'play directs the attention of his audience to the
problem of spiritedness, the warrior virtue par excellence. As I
hope to show, Euripides'diagnosis of the problem is sobering; he
reveals the ineradicablyambivalent characterof spiritednessat the
very moment when we would expect this quality of soul to be
most enthusiasticallyendorsed by his fellow citizens. If Euripides'
analysisof the problem of spiritednessis drawn from the immediate
context provided by the Peloponnesian War, it is, as continued
interest in the play attests, a message for all time; Euripides'play
sheds light on a permanent ambiguity at the heart of political life.4
The best way into the political dimension of the play is provided
by Medea herself. To assert that Euripides refuses to simplify
Medea by making her more sympathetic or at least more consistently the object of admirationor villainy is not yet precise enough.
It is not merely that Euripides sharpens the two-edged character
of Medea, but that the play is crafted in such a way that each of
these aspects is presented in succession. It is only after Euripides
has drawn the audience toward a heroine in the first half of the
play, that he goes on to reveal her terrible brutality in the second
half.
A. THE TRADITION OF THE GREEK HERO
The play opens with the nurse'ssympatheticaccount of Medea's
past, one calculated to conjure up heroic adventures on foreign
shores (1-7), romantic love (8,13-15), and the delight (handanousa)
2. Given the variety of traditions that comprise the Medea legend, Euripides
had considerable latitude in fashioning his character. According to one tradition
Medea unintentionally killed her children; according to another, they were killed
by kinsmen of Creon. See Page, Medea,pp. xxi-xxv.
3. For a thematic discussion of the relationship between Greek tragedy and
political philosophy, see J. Peter Euben, ed., GreekTragedyand PoliticalTheory
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), esp. pp. 1-42.
4. For a treatment of the problem of spiritedness as a theme in the history of
thePoliticalSpirit:
political philosophy, see Catherine Zuckert, ed., Understanding
from Socratesto Nietzsche(New Haven: Yale University
Philosophical
Investigations
Press, 1988).
EURIPIDES' MEDEA
589
caused by Medea's presence among the citizens of Corinth (1112).5 Actually, Medea has murdered and dismembered her
brother, abandoned her father's house, and used trickery to get
Pelias'daughters to kill their own father. Although this latter event
is alluded to by the nurse (9-10), it is in the most neutral way
possible. Responsibility for the crime appearsto lie not with Medea
but with the unsuspecting and gullible daughters of Pelias. Although Euripides is working within the constraints of a received
tradition, his play begins by muting the most objectionableaspects
of Medea's past; Euripides'initial presentationof Medea is striking
in its restraint.6
Although Medea is a foreigner, the full and problematic force
of this fact is initially blunted by Euripides. This is especially apparent in the sympathetic reactions of the chorus of Corinthian
women.7 When they hear Medea's cries of anguish, their concern
for Medea leads them to seek out her nurse. In the course of this
exchange they assert three times that Medea is a friend to them
(138, 179, 182). Medea uses the same expression when she comes
out of her house to speak to the Corinthian women (227). Although
Medea speaks of her status as a foreigner, the speech as a whole
does not emphasize foreignness but rather the solidarity of the
female sex. Medea delivers a famous speech on the plight of women
and, after explaining the unjust treatment she has received from
Jason, confides her intention to find some way to avenge those
wrongs. The Corinthian women show no hesitation in acting as
Medea's confidantes since they consider her desire for retribution
entirely just (endikos)(267-68).
Shortly thereafter,when Creon announces his decree of banishment, Medea is more specific about her intention to slay three of
her enemies: Creon, Jason, and his new bride (374-75). Far from
being dismayed by the harshness of Medea's plan, the Corinthian
women sing a song protesting the injustices perpetrated against
5. Pietro Pucci writes, "The nurse 'celebrates'Medea's past and present situation, and she does it from the point of view of pity and compassion, just as the
author, Euripides, presents Medea in the course of the drama"(The Violence
ofPity
in Euripides'Medea
[Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1980], p. 32).
6. Medea is more forthcoming about the murder of her brother at 167. However, she is at this point effectivelydistanced from her crime; Euripides shows her
bemoaning her past as shameful folly.
7. Jason, for his own purposes to be sure, also speaks of the honor in which
Medea is held among the Greeks (539-40), something that is confirmed by the
kind of reception Medea receives from King Aegeus.
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THE REVIEW
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womankind by male poets, and anticipate a day when future poets
will balance the ledger by singing of the heroic deeds of women
(410-30). The relevant point is that, far from seeing Medea as a
wild and alien creature, the Corinthian women see her as their
champion. Medea gives voice to the injustices suffered by all
women, barbarian and Greek alike. Her spirited promise to requite
those injustices, at least to some extent, is not presented as the
excessive desire of a fierce barbarian but is embraced by the Corinthian women as their own.8
Not only does Euripides present Medea as a new champion for
Greek women, he also depicts her as belonging to a select group
constituted by the greatest Greek heroes.9 She has suffered unjustified dishonor and will inflict a bloody retribution upon her enemies.
Euripides fashions Medea with the boldness, determination, and
passionate intensity characteristic of the hero. The argument has
been best made by Knox who concludes his description of Medea
in the following way.
She acts as if she were a combination of the naked violence of Achilles
and the cold craft of Odysseus, and, what is more, it is in these terms
that the words of Euripides'play present her. "Letno one," she says,
"thinkme contemptible and weak, nor inactive either, but quite the
opposite-dangerous to my enemies, helpful to my friends. Such are
the qualities that bring a life glory"(807ff). It is the creed by which
Homeric and Sophoclean heroes live-and die.10
Although Medea is a foreign woman with a checkered past,
Euripides' initial portrait of her is entirely sympathetic. Her past
is painted in bold strokes and she is presented as a new champion,
a heroine who stands within the tradition of the greatest Greek
heroes. 1
8. Contrary to Page's assessment, Medea,pp. xvii-xxi.
9. For resemblancesbetween Euripides'Medeaand Sophocles'Ajax,see Knox,
"TheMedeaof Euripides,"p. 196 and Elizabeth Bryon Bongie, "HeroicElements
in the Medeaof Euripides," Transactions
of theAmericanPhilologicalAssociation107
(1977): 27-56.
10. Knox, "The Medeaof Euripides,"p. 202; cf. p. 198.
11. After Creon leaves the stage, Medea explains to the Chorus her apparent
submissiveness as a necessary part of her plan for retribution. Bongie comments:
"Euripidestears the veil from his Medea and we see her, dearly now for the first
time, a veritable Achilles or an Ajax, filled with an unrelenting resolve to destroy
her enemies and to vindicate her own honor" ("Heroic Elements," p. 38).
EURIPIDES' MEDEA
591
B. MORE AND LESS THAN HUMAN
The turning point in Euripides' portrayal of Medea begins at
the start of the second half of the play. As the drama gradually
builds to its appalling climax, Euripides systematically turns our
sympathies away from his central character.
It is after her encounter with King Aegeus that Medea first
announces her intention to kill her children (791-93). The previously sympathetic chorus of Corinthian women protests this
change in Medea's plan for revenge (811-16). Moreover, they call
into question Medea's intention to take refuge in the holy city of
Athens (824-50). The birth place of harmony, home to all virtues,
and especially renowned for wisdom, how could Athens provide
refuge for one polluted by the murder of her own children? The
chorus compels Medea and the audience to consider in pictorial
detail the horrorof the deed she intends to do (851-65). The women
will honor their promise of silence, but once Medea sets in motion
the inexorable chain of events that will result in the death of her
children, they give voice to their despair (976-77). Medea's new
plan for revenge has set her at odds with her once sympathetic
friends.
Euripides continues to unravel the emotional bonds between
Medea and the audience which he has been so careful to forge in
the first half of the play. When the messenger arrives to announce
the death of Jason's bride and her father, the violence of the scene
is painted in vivid detail. While the lurid particulars with which
the messenger recounts the death agonies of Medea's unsuspecting
victims drawswith it the sympathyof the audience, Medea is shown
to be taking pleasure in the gory consequences of her handiwork
(1127-28; 1134-35). As the chorus expresses its pity for the innocent daughter of Creon whose only fault is to have been taken in
marriage by Jason (1233-35), Medea turns her grim resolve
against those who are more innocent still (1236ff.). And as the play
reaches its grisly climax and the women pray for divine intervention, the audience hears the desperate cries of the children at the
approachof their sword-wieldingmother. As the terrifiedscreams
of the children give way to deadly silence, the once sympathetic
heroine has become a repulsive and alien being.
The gradualdistancingof Medea fromthe audience is completed
in the last scene. From her final position above the stage, Medea
gloats over her victory. She will not even allowJason to see, much
less touch, the bodies of his now dead sons. As she torments the
592
THE REVIEW OF POLITICS
childless and wifeless Jason, Euripides effects a second reversal.
Jason, the unambiguous villain of the play, has now become the
object of our sympathy. For all his apparent strength, he turns out
to have been the helpless victim of Medea'sdestroying fury. Medea
herself, however, has been cut loose from the cords of human
sympathy. She seems both more and less than human. The murderess of her own children, she exalts in the completeness of her
triumph. Not only have the gods failed to intervene on behalf of
her innocent victims, but they have furnished the very chariot by
which Medea's escape is assured. As Medea stands far aboveJason
and prophesies his death, she has passed beyond simple human
proportions. As she prepares to escape, Medea is distant and terrible; she has become a god.12
II. THE FULCRUM OF SPIRITEDNESS
As I hope to have suggested, Euripideshas carefullyconstructed
his play in such a way as to move his audience from initial sympathy
to repellent horror.'3 His initial presentation of a new champion
in the tradition of the greatest Greek heroes is gradually stripped
away to reveal an alien being whose brutal crimes inspire fear and
dread. What accounts for this shift and what does Euripides mean
to accomplishby it? The remainderof this essay attemptsto provide
some answers to these questions.
A. THE FULCRUM
One way to address these questions is to consider with greater
care exactly how Euripides effects the shift in attitude toward
Medea. We are helped in this regard by the chorus of Corinthian
women. They consider Medea a friend, sympathize with her victimization, and even approve her plan for bloody revenge. Their
approbation turns to protest only when Medea decides to murder
her children. To maintain that it is Medea's resolve to murder her
children that, more than anything else, strains the emotional ties
that have developed between Medea and the audience is to state
the obvious. It is only slightly less obvious to point out that it is
12. Knox, "The Medeaof Euripides,"p. 208.
13. T. V. Buttrey makes a similar observation about the way in which Euripides manipulates the attitude of the audience in this play. "Accidentand Design
in Euripides'Medea,"AmericanJournal
of Philology79 (1958): 1-17, esp. pp. 7-9.
EURIPIDES' MEDEA
593
the very extremity of this deed which, more than any other, reveals
the full truth about Medea herself. Most women would be angry
were they to be set aside for a younger wife. A few would be capable
of exacting bloody retribution. But very few, perhaps only one,
are capable of carrying out a revenge which requires both the
premeditated murder of one's children and the willingness to continue living in the full awareness of the atrocity of one's crime. It
is Medea, and perhaps only Medea, who is forever associated with
this horrific act.
If this deed is more revealing of Medea than any other, it is
reasonable to expect that what enables Medea to make such a
resolve and carry it through would be more revealing still. The
Corinthian women ask: "From where will you get the courage
(thrasos)?. . . How will you face the blood of your children with
a steeled spirit (tlamonithum&t)?"
(856, 865).14 Euripides'answer to
these questions is not only our best point of entry into Medea's
soul, but, I would suggest, also reveals a central problem of the
play. It is especially in those passages where Medea firstannounces
her intention to kill her children and then struggles against and
overcomes her own revulsion for this plan that we find Euripides'
answer to these questions.
B. SPIRITEDNESS
After the departure of King Aegeus, a specific path for retribution has opened for Medea. Although she is willing enough to
contemplate the terrible death she will inflict on Jason's new bride
(783-89), she laments even to think about what must follow. To
obliteratethe house ofJason requiresthe death of her own children.
How does she account for the fierce extremity of her chosen plan?
Medea explains succinctly with a phrase that recurs at crucial
moments throughout the play: "The mocking laughter (gelasthaz)
of
enemies is unendurable"(797). She adds, "Letno one consider me
petty or weak or passive, but rather as one possessed of a different
character-stern toward enemies and kindly toward friends-for
to such belong the most glorious life" (807-10). Medea regards
herself as belonging to the race of heroes. She seeks for herself a
life of glory, one that is utterly incompatible with dishonor of any
kind. Medea will be victorious over her enemies or die in the
14. Translations, although indebted to Arthur Way (Loeb edition) and Rex
Warner (Complete Greek Tragedies), are my own.
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THE REVIEW OF POLITICS
attempt. Nor will she hesitate to use the sword against even those
who are dearest to her, if that is what is required to maintain her
honor.
But Medea does hesitate. When the moment for the final and
most brutal act of revenge arrives, Medea is torn asunder by feelings of maternal love. Not only is Medea's reconsideration important if she is to retain any degree of sympathy from her audience, it also lays bare a battleground within her soul and in so
doing allows the audience to see still more clearly what it is that
moves her most.
As Medea contemplates the bright hopes and innocent smiles of
her children she decides that she cannot carry out her plan. She
will spare the life of her children and bring them into exile with her
(1040-48). This new course of action is, however, soon overturned.
The all but unendurable pain of slaughtering her children is overcome by another pain which is simply unendurable. "Do I want
to bring upon myself mocking laughter, letting my enemies go
unpunished? This is unendurable"(1049-51). She resolves to do
the deed.
Yet Medea again falters(1056-58). This time she curses the part
of her soul which fuels her deadly course: "Wretchedspiritedness
(thumos),15do not do these deeds." But even this hesitation is overcome. Swearing by the avenging furies, Medea declares that she
will never surrender her children, leaving them as victims to be
outraged (kathubrisat)
by her enemies (1059-61). She is once again
determined to do the deed (1062-69).
After calling the children to herself, Medea's resolve is for a third
time in danger of unraveling (1069-77). Overcome by the horror
of what she is about to do, she is compelled to send her children
away. Medea's vacillations reach their harrowing climax as she
makes what will turn out to be her final determination, one that
will remain unshaken to the end. Medea's tortured ruminations
conclude with a general and revealing statement about her state of
soul.
15. Although I believe "spiritedness"best captures the meaning which Euripides attaches to thumosin this context, my thesis does not depend upon it. Spiritedness is a convenient term for the constellation of qualities which I have already
described and which are unambiguously at the heart of Medea's warrior-like
character.
EURIPIDES' MEDEA
595
is strongerthan my second thoughts,spiritSpiritedness(thumos)
ednesswhichis the causeof the greatestevilsamongmortals.(107880)16
The sword will cut loose the bonds of maternal affection. Spiritedness, the warriorvirtue par excellence, is victorious on the battleground of Medea's soul.
C. THE AMBIVALENCEOF SPIRITEDNESS
Medeais untypical among the extant plays of Euripides in that
it consistently focuses our attention on a single individual; other
charactersappear to be so many foils enabling Euripides to reflect
the drama of his central character more vividly. What Euripides
displays in his central character is the problem of spiritedness.
The play's carefully crafted ambivalence toward Medea suggests
Euripides'own ambivalence toward her dominating passion. It is
the extreme character of Medea's spiritedness-her inability to
tolerate dishonor and undaunted determination to exact the penalty from her enemies-that gives her stature among the "most
glorious"Greek heroes. It is, however, this same extreme of spiritedness that leads to the appalling murder of her innocent children.
The difficultywith spiritedness is that it can lead to both noble
and savage extremes. The Platonic Socrates later makes explicit
the problematic character of spiritedness in what is undoubtedly
one of the most famous discussions of warrior virtue in classical
literature. In their effort to construct a perfectlyjust city, Socrates
and his interlocutors speak about the class of guardians in whom
the thumoticpart of the soul dominates. The great challenge in
forming a guardian class is to make them fierce toward their enemies and gentle towardtheir friends, since that fiercenesscouldjust
as easily be turned towards fellow citizens (Rep. 375b-c). Clearly,
Euripidesis not interested in providing a philosophicforum within
which to examine the issue. He does, however, write a play which,
relying on the power inherent in drama, confronts his audience
with the problematic characterof spiritedness. What first appears
to be sympathetic, attractive and even noble turns out to be repulsive, ugly and savage.
16. There is scholarly controversy regarding the authorship of 1021-80.
M. D. Reeve argues against the authenticity of these lines. "Euripides'Medea
22 (1972): 51-61. G. M. A. Grube, on the other
1021-1080," ClassicalQuarterly
hand, maintains that 1078-80 is the climax of the entire play. The Dramaof
Euripides(Methuen: Barnes & Noble, 1941; rpt. 1961), p. 162.
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Whatever difficulties are occasioned by making the central character of his play a woman, there is at least one powerful consequence that is relevant to the thesis of this essay.17 It heightens the
brutality of the final act and thereby intensifies Euripides' dramatization of the problem of spiritedness: The very quality which is
most necessary to defend and protect one's own is shown to have
a power capable of severing even the powerful natural bond which
unites mother and child.
III. THE ATHENIAN CONNECTION
Euripides' Medea took last place in the competition. Many reasons are suggested to explain its initial unpopularity, among which
the triumph of a foreign female and the approbation of the gods
despite the brutality of Medea's crime must loom large. A further
reason suggests itself as well. The date of the performance in the
spring of 431 anticipates by only a few months the outbreak of the
Peloponnesian War. Page's imaginative description of the tenor of
life in Athens at the time of the performance must be close to the
truth.
The imminent war was the topic of general conversation in Athens,
and patrioticfeeling was running high. Athens was the best country,
war was a glorious thing, and soldiers were heroes.18
Euripides begins his play by stoking the fires of heroic warrior
virtue as Athenians behold a sympathetic heroine unwilling to
endure dishonor from her enemies. However, in a bold reversal,
Euripides' play reveals the potentially destructive power of these
same sentiments.
17. This statement is in no way intended to dismiss the importance of gender
in Medea,merely to put it aside. The complexity and nuance of Euripides'treatment of this issue furnishes ample material for an essay of its own. I limit myself
to the observationthat Euripidesboth acknowledges(in the Chorus of Corinthian
women) and defies (in person of Medea) the conventional Greek view of women.
Medea, the only character in the play to wield a sword, debunks that arrogance
which stems from male superiority on the battlefield(248-51), outmaneuvers the
impotent King Aegeus, and inflicts devastating and complete defeat on the hero
Jason. It may well be that Euripides'freedom from sexual stereotypesconstituted
an obstacle to the audience's appreciation of the play.
18. Page, Medea,p. xi.
EURIPIDES' MEDEA
597
A. THE DRAMATIC WEAKNESS OF THE AEGEUS EPISODE
That Euripides wishes to bring home to his fellow citizens the
dangers of spiritednessis, I believe, revealed in the much maligned
scene between Medea and King Aegeus. The scene has no preparation and no follow-up. Euripides does not make the slightest effort
to supply a pretext for the encounter. Quite literally, King Aegeus
just happens to wander across the stage. The episode has a long
history of criticism going all the way back to Aristotle. Aristotle
maintains that there can be no defense for improbability (alogon)
when it is not necessary and no use is made of it (Poetics 1461bl921). Whether this is an adequate assessment of the Aegeus episode
remains to be seen. However, at least this much is incontrovertible.
The completely gratuitous character of Aegeus' arrival on stage
does weaken the dramatic integrity of the play.
The myth with which Euripides is working might offer an initial
explanation for the weakness of this scene. Euripides must accept
at least the general outlines of a story that has Medea escape to
Athens where she will eventually take up residence with Aegeus.
This is surely part of the explanation. It cannot, however, be the
whole story. The difficulty lies in the fact that Euripides deliberately
emphasizes the encounter between Medea and Aegeus; he uses
and exploits a classical framework which has the effect of giving
special prominence to this episode.
The play as a whole falls within a remarkably (especially for
Euripides) symmetrical framework. The usual elements--prologue/parodos, five episodes, and exodos - are presented in parallel
form throughout the play. The opening (prologue and parodos) is
dominated by the unseen presence of Medea, who is heard from
her position offstage. This is paralleled by the final scene in which
Medea is again offstage, this time overshadowing the scene from
above. The first and fifth episodes both deal with the royal house:
Creon's banishment of Medea and Medea's triumphant revenge
over Creon and his unnamed daughter. The second and fourth
episodes concern Jason: his patronizing complacency toward
Medea and, subsequently, her easy manipulation of him. Only the
third episode is unparalleled; it is also the numerical center of the
play (662 lines before; 656 lines after). This is the scene which
recounts the meeting between Medea and Aegeus. If it was necessary for Euripides to include this material in his account of the
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OF POLITICS
Medea story, it was certainly not necessary for him to build the
dramatic structure of his play around it.'9
B. SOMEEXPLANATIONS
Why would Euripides choose to take the weakest link of his
drama and provide a structural framework that cast it into relief?
Various explanations have been offered. Some commentators have
argued that it is the Aegeus episode which provides Medea with
a specific plan for revenge. It is only when she sees the extent of
Aegeus' suffering that Medea comes up with the idea of destroying
Jason's children as a way of effecting her retribution.20 This is at
best a partial explanation. Although Medea first announces her
plan to kill her children after speaking with Aegeus, the fear that
Medea might do violence to her children had been expressed from
the outset of the play, much before Medea encounters Aegeus (9095, 98-117, 182-3).21
A more ambitious defense of the scene is offered by Dunkle who,
building upon the work of Buttrey, attempts to relate this episode
to the theme of the play as a whole. Dunkle argues that self-interest
is a dominant theme in the play and that this comes most clearly
to light in the Aegeus episode, which is the turning point of the
play. The scene looks back and demonstrates how the Medea-Jason
relationship, also based on self-interest, came into being.22 On the
other hand, the scene looks ahead. The very irrationality of Aegeus'
appearance anticipates the part played by chance and its terrible
consequences given the self-interested opportunism that prevails
in the drama.23
19. Similar observations about the formal design of the play are made by
Buttrey, "Accidentand Design," pp. 5-6, 10 andJ. Roger Dunkle, "The Aegeus
and Proceedings
Episode and the Theme of Euripides' Medea,"Transactions
of the
AmericanPhilologicalAssociation100 (1969): 97-107, esp. p. 97.
20. For example, H. Darnley Naylor, "TheAegeus Episode, Medea663-773,"
The ClassicalReview23 (1909): 189-90 and Bongie, "Heroic Elements," p. 40.
21. See D. J. Conacher, Euripidean
Drama:Myth, ThemeandStructure
(Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 1967), p. 190 note 11 and Buttrey, "Accidentand
Design," pp. 3-4.
22. Dunkle, "Aegeus Episode," pp. 100-101, 107.
23. Ibid., pp. 104-107. H. D. F. Kitto defends the Aegeus scene in a different
way. The encounter provides a "settingfor the outburst of unreason."He maintains that Euripides is justified in manipulating the scene so as to put his thesis
in the clearest possible light; namely, that "the passions and unreason to which
A LiteraryStudy[New
humanity is subject are its greatest scourge"(GreekTragedy:
York: Doubleday Anchor, 1939; rpt. 1950], p. 206).
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Notwithstanding the sensibleness of Dunkle's attempt to find a
thematic link between the play and its central scene, his interpretation is problematic. It has the effect of leveling all characters by
attributing to them a typically modern preoccupation with selfinterest. Although Dunkle surely succeeds in shedding some light
on Medea and a recurring theme in the play, he does so at the cost
of flattening her character to the point where it becomes impossible
to account for her attractiveness and, even less, her heroic stature.
As I have already argued, Euripides' presentation is more complex.
His portrayal of Medea contains both attractive and repulsive elements. Any effort to collapse or simplify her unwieldy character
cannot account for the enduring fascination which Euripides'
Medea has exerted on audiences through the ages.
C. DIDACTIC STRENGTH
I would suggest a much less esoteric reason for the prominence
which Euripides gives to the Aegeus episode. The immediate effect
of the scene is to bring Medea to Athens. Whatever the dramatic
weakness of the scene, I would maintain that its didactic strength
lies in the Athenian connection itself.
The Athenian king offers protection to someone who claims to
be able to help him. Perhaps it is his preoccupation with the more
immediate problem of childlessness that prevents him from seeing
what he really gets. Medea personifies the full force and destructive
power of spiritedness, both its noble peak and savage low point.
Indeed, Medea's more than human stature at the end of the play
invites the audience to view her less as an individual and more as
an exemplar of this permanent aspect of human experience.24 What
does it mean that Medea will now take up residence in Athens?
Does Athens harbor sentiments which, unbeknownst to it, will
prove as destructive to the fabric of its polity as Medea is shown
to be for Corinth?
In a word, yes. The policy of Athenian imperialism with its
promise of glory must necessarily rely upon and cultivate the spiritedness of its citizens. As the Athenians learn many years later,
this same spiritedness will result in the ruin of Athens and the
dismantling of its empire.
24. Kitto maintains that Medea is "the impersonation of one of the blind and
irrational forces in human nature." Greek Tragedy, p. 209; cf. pp. 204-209.
600
THE REVIEW OF POLITICS
At the time the play was being performed, the grounds of complaint and causes of disagreementbetween Athens and Spartawere
already apparent.25On the eve of war Pericles explained to his
fellow citizens that capitulating to Spartan demands out of fear
would be tantamount to slavery. Rather, he urged Athenians to
emulate the resolve and courage displayed by their fathersin withstanding the Persians and pointed out that it is from the greatest
dangers that the greatest honors accrue to both the city and the
individual.26The appeal to spiritedness to defend the Athenian
empire became even more marked after the first year of war. In
Pericles'famous funeral oration, he enjoined his fellow citizens to
fix their gaze on the power of Athens and, falling in love with her
greatness, to find the courage and daring necessary to continue the
war.27These sentiments reached a climax years later when the
Athenians enthusiasticallyendorsed a scheme to enlarge their empire with an ill-fated expedition to Sicily.28The devastating defeat
of Athenian forces in Sicily marked the beginning of the end for
Athens. The very sentiments which had once seemed most necessary to preserve the life and honor of Athens ultimately proved to
be the cause of its undoing.
My claim is not, of course, that Euripides or anyone could have
anticipated the specific outcome of these events. I would assert,
however, that Euripides was less than sanguine about the kinds of
excesses that the impending war was almost certain to call forth
from citizen soldiers. At a time when Athenians would have most
welcomed a patriotic play extolling the bright glory of heroic
courage, Euripides chose instead to reveal the hidden and destructive darkness which lurks in the warrior soul.
The celebratedsong in praiseof Athens which followsthe Aegeus
episode (824-65) is often cited as evidence of Euripides'own patriotism. The subsequent decline of Athens in the aftermath of the
Peloponnesian War leads Page to assert that this was the last time
that such a tribute to the glory of Athens could be written.29This
25. Thucydides speaks especially of the disputes over Epidamnus (435-3) and
Corcyra (433). Histories1, 146.
26. Histories,1, 140-41; 144.
27. Histories,2, 43.
28. Thucydides says that the excessive eagerness (aganepithumian)
of the majority was such that those opposed to the expedition feared to speak lest their
opposition be construed as a lack of patriotism. Histories6, 24.
29. Page, Medea,p. viii.
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601
appraisal needs to be qualified. Euripides' song does indeed praise
unconquered Athens for its harmony, virtue, and renowned
wisdom (824-45). But it also asks how a city such as Athens could
possibly provide a home for the fierce violence inherent in Medea
(846-65). Euripides' "patriotic song" calls to mind the best qualities
of Athenians while at the same time suggesting that these qualities
are incompatible with Medea and everything she personifies.
The play ends with Medea's imminent escape to Athens. Medea,
who will be welcomed by King Aegeus because of her promise to
help him procure an heir (716-18), must escape to Athens in order
to avoid punishment for having extinguished the royal line in Corinth. She who will be received into the hearth of Athens as a giver
of life is in reality a harbinger of destruction.
CONCLUSION
Toward the beginning of the play, Medea's nurse complains of
poets who write pleasant songs for those living at ease (190-203).3o
She explains that their hymns are superfluous at best and completely devoid of wisdom. They understand nothing of the terrible
pains which burden life. Whereas music that could heal these pains
would be truly useful, poets have hitherto used their skills to accompany celebrations, providing pleasing sounds where they are least
needed.
Euripides' Medeadoes not celebrate but rather exposes the power
of spiritedness. Euripides is not one of the foolish poets who are only
concerned to please their audience. Rather, he offers a beautiful but
bitter song dealing with the deaths and terrible misfortunes which
overturn homes and cities. The Athenians voted down Euripides'
play. They would have better manifested Athens' renowned
wisdom had they been willing to ponder the cautionary notes
sounded by one of the city's wisest poets.
30. Pucci notes that while the passage is consistent with the dramatic situation,
it is also generally taken to describe what, in Euripides' own view, constitutes the
essence of tragedy. Violenceof Pity, p. 28.