Would God no Argo e er had winged the seas
To Colchis through the blue Symplegades
No shaft of riven pine in Pelion’s glen
Shaped that first oar blade in the hands of men Valiant who won to save King Pelias vow
The fleece All golden Never then I trow
Mine own princess her spirit wounded sore
With love of Jason to the encastled shore
Had sailed of old lolcos never wrought
The daughters of King Pelias knowing not
To spill their father’s life nor fled in fear
Hunted for that fierce sin to Corinth here
With Jason and her babes This folk at need
Stood friend to her and she in word and deed
Served alway Jason Surely this doth bind
Through all ill days the hurts of humankind
When man and woman in one music move
But now the world is angry and true love
Sick as with poison Jason doth forsake
My mistress and his own two sons…
The Sophoclean Hero
Medea represents the Sophoclean Hero that is already mired in tragedy, with seemingly no way out and no hope for redemption. Perhaps the most telling passage in which to dissect the motivations of Medea is the first one. The first twenty lines are delivered by the nurse—a significant authorial choice to express the true strength of Medea’s convictions, that they are premeditated enough that the nurse senses what is afoot, and that she is too mad to deliver these opening lines herself. In keeping with the Sophoclean formula, Euripides creates a solitary, rather pitiful, resigned Medea in the opening scene, one the audience doesn’t immediately see, but can only hear bemoaning her injustice and pleading with the gods from inside her home.
Her nurse opens the play, stating what seems to be a wish that Jason had never gone off to be a hero, so that he would not return to what he finds, stating, “Would god no Argo e’er had winged the seas” (I.i.1) referring assumedly to Jason’s winged sandals. She is committed to the murders she will commit, and is way past the point of compromise. She is resigned to accepting the ramifications of her act without it deterring her from her determination to carry out that act. This opposing convergence of intention and emotion cements Euripides’ creation of the fated and vengeful victim that we associate with many tragic heroes of Greek mythology, one whose multi-faceted character is reflected and manipulated in works by Sophocles and Ovid as well.
This can be most clearly shown in Medea’s introduction in the first scene when she refers to herself as a “wretched suffering woman” and expresses her wish to be dead. Medea is not angry or outwardly wrathful here; her vengeance is internal, subtle, and practiced. The audience sees that Medea is powerless against fate and the gods, out of control in her situation. When the nurse alludes to “the first oar blade in the hands of men” (I.i.4), we are meant to see the imbalance of power between the dominant and masculine hero returning from his journey, and the helpless and wronged woman left at home.
Medea reasons that because of her husband’s affairs having so ruined her, she was moved to kill her children almost as a direct extension of the betrayals their father has committed against their mother. Euripides’ Medea carries on the tradition of tragic figures wallowing in their fate and lamenting their violent vengeance, and thus makes Medea a true Sophoclean Hero because she willingly committed crimes to precede her death.
Another aspect of the Sophoclean Hero that Euripides plays on is pairing Medea with another character who appears more mentally balanced. Though it is certainly hard to come by a person in a Greek tragedy who is considered normal and relatable, her husband Jason possesses certain qualities that allude to the fact that he is on a more normal plain than Medea, whose mind is seized with madness. The nurse refers to Jason as “…Valiant who won to save King Pelias’ vow/ The fleece all golden” (I.i.4-5), he is a returning war hero, in comparison with his wife who has lost her mind to the extent that she can murder her children. In sense though, these and the lines that follow can be seen as contradictory or ironic because Euripides certainly paints Jason as flawed and somewhat un-heroic.
As the Sophoclean Hero set up entails, Jason pleads with Medea to desist and is refused, ultimately meeting his death. Though Jason is otherwise known as the hero leading the Argonauts, he is seen here as a man whose infidelity drove his wife to madness and murder. This hero-villain dichotomy is essential to the creation of Medea as a Sophoclean Hero because it shows her in almost pure light, as someone who has only been wronged and has not wronged herself. In this sense, we almost identify with Medea’s murderous tragedy because this second, more “normal” character comes across as a betrayer.
A character whose existence is debatable in the play is that of the absence of the gods. Medea and Euripides alike seem strongly influenced by the gods.
Euripides’ reverence and respect for the gods as an author of myth are evident. Medea asks the gods for mercy, salvation, and strength. A Sophoclean Hero, however, is to approach the absence of the gods with desperation, confusedness, a sense of abandonment.
Medea seems encouraged by the gods to do what she has set out to do.
The Sophoclean Hero aspects
In the case of Antigone by Sophocles, many of the Sophoclean Hero aspects are present. First and foremost, is the resigned self-righteousness that we recognize from Medea. Both Antigone and Medea feel that they have been wronged by someone the rest of the world considers heroic, Antigone by the reigning King of Thebes, and Medea by her husband Jason, a celebrated hero. The deep wrongs the two women feel drive them to behave the way they do. Like Medea, a true Sophoclean Hero, Antigone is persuaded by everyone to desist before she has to pay with her life. But she can not be dissuaded from her task of burying her brother which she feels is a necessary matter of dignity.
Ovid’s depiction of Medea is off when she meets Jason and falls in love with him.
Though we are presented with a Medea here in a far different mood than that of Euripides, we see similarities in the description of a passionate, strong-minded woman. Ovid refers to her as having “conceived a mastery passion” and that “long she fought/ Her frenzy, but the voice of reason failed” (Ovid VII.12-13). Though this is assumedly about her falling in love with Jason, we can almost supplant these words in Euripides’ work, in the description of her drive to murder her children. The “passion” and “frenzy” expressed here seem to be essential traits of Medea across the board. She worries that “against my will, some force bewitches me” (Ovid VII. 23), as if, like in Euripides’ Medea, she is being moved by a predetermined motivation. One of the most captivating lines is when Ovid states, “Thrust down the flames that burn your virgin heart”. I believe this line can be considered a reference to the author’s belief that, regardless of the wrongs Ovid knows she will eventually commit, her heart is pure.
This is significant in comparing Medea to Jason because Jason is considered a hero and thus, on some level, righteous, where Medea is depicted simply as a madwoman and a murderer by the end of her life.
Conclusion
Ultimately, we are given a fuller description of a character than any other in Greek and Roman myth. Whereas countless pages can be filled with descriptions of the actions of heroes, their successes, failures, and loves, Medea is shown inside and out, not through her actions by through her character and her sentiments. Ovid sets the fiery and passionate tone through which Medea lives her life, and Euripides solidifies her as a woman bound for and resigned to tragedy, whose madness and deep sadness became so severe that, eventually, it became all she was.
References
Euripides. Medea. (1907) Oxford University Press: Oxford.
Ovid. Metamorphoses. (1998) Oxford University Press: Oxford.
Sophocles. Antigone. (1906) Clarendon Press: London.