(Euripides, ln 908-910) This is yet another way in which Medea parallels the position of women in our society today who are also expected to keep their feelings hidden. Medea has an inclination towards killing people as a way to solve problems. Long before killing her husband's wife or her own children, she had killed her own brother in order to escape a difficult situation. As a representation of all women in Greek culture, this is not an out of character action, for women throughout Greek mythology have been murderous. (Not that men in Greek stories are any less ready to slay another living creature!) Some may consider Medea to be evil because she resorts to homicide so quickly, while others see her as a neutral force like many powerful beings throughout time that create and destroy without much discretion. It accomplishes the goal of getting revenge and is therefore an acceptable means for Medea to use. It is a natural thing for her to do, and she speaks of it as a very matter-of-fact occurrence. "The most direct method is the best, the one at which I have a special skill." (Euripides)...
Medea is from outside of society and therefore does not live by the rules of that society. She is supported by other women, despite her unacceptable behavior. Women in Greek culture were understood to be passionate and even violent internally, but were expected to keep a calm facade. This frustrating position is part of Medea's character as well. Finally, it is simply in Medea's nature to kill people if it will solve a problem she is having.
Medea relates a story about the power of love, which induces sacrifice as well as jealousy and feelings of revenge aroused by betrayal. Medea, the principal character, is a woman, who is so smitten by her love for Jason that she forsakes her family, country and people to live in "...the land of Corinth with her husband and children, where her exile found favour with the citizens to whose land
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1 Theodore Roosevelt, elected as President of the United States in 1901 and 1904, was one of the most ambiguous characters in American history. His political beliefs and attitudes, both progressive and conservative, influenced and shaped many domestic and international events which took place in the early 1890's and into the opening years of the twentieth century. In the years prior to Roosevelt's presidency, two of the greatest social/political problems facing America
1 A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE FLOOD MYTHS IN THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH AND THE BOOK OF GENESIS The Biblical story of the Flood as found in the Book of Genesis contains many similarities to the Mesopotamian myth known as the Epic of Gilgamesh; in fact, it appears that the Biblical account as related by Noah, ca. 1400-1200 B.C.E., may have been entirely derived from the Epic of Gilgamesh, written some six hundred years earlier
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