Euripides’ Medea: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned
Ink and collage
FOR SALE: £45 (Email: email@example.com)
To me, Medea remains a successful feminist heroine in an unlikely era, who bravely takes ownership of her actions, albeit being wildly passionate and violent. She is the every woman, thorns and roses.
The tragedy ‘Medea’ produced by Euripides in 431 BCE is based on the Ancient Greek myth of Jason and the foreigner Medea. Unorthodox to Classical Athenian plays, which serve to politically contextualise, Euripides has portrayed a powerful, rebellious and cunning female character in Medea within the patriarchy.
Medea carries the head of the bull, an animal she is associated with, to represent her strength and defiance against her husband Jason’s treachery who has married the local princess for status and wealth. Medea rejects the patriarchy through significant acts: refusing to become Jason’s mistress, and violently murdering his new bride and their children to achieve vengeance. To depict these elements of subterfuge at the hands of uncommonly, a woman, Medea sits triumphantly upon Jason’s decapitated head and the condemning and pitying eyes of the Corinthian women. www.instagram.com/larab.92/