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by Euripides (Author), Gilbert Murray (Translator)
The Medea is a Greek tragedy written by Euripides in the 5th century BCE. It tells the story of Medea, a sorceress and former princess of Colchis who falls in love with Jason, a Greek hero who arrives in her homeland seeking the Golden Fleece. Medea helps Jason secure the Fleece and they flee to Corinth, where they have two sons and live as husband and wife. However, when Jason decides to marry the daughter of the Corinthian king, Medea is consumed by jealousy and seeks revenge. She murders the princess and her own children, and then escapes to Athens. The play explores themes of love, betrayal, revenge, and the position of women in ancient Greek society. Medea is portrayed as a complex and tragic figure, driven to extreme actions by her love for Jason and her sense of betrayal. The play also critiques the patriarchal society of ancient Greece, in which women were often treated as property and had limited agency. The Medea is considered one of Euripides' greatest works and a masterpiece of Greek drama. It has been adapted and reinterpreted numerous times over the centuries, and remains a powerful and relevant work of literature today.1912. Murray has translated the text into English rhyming verse with explanatory notes. The Medea, in spite of its background of wonder and enchantment, is not a romantic play but a tragedy of character and situation. It deals, so to speak, not with the romance itself, but with the end of the romance, a thing which is so terribly often the reverse of romantic. For all but the very highest of romances are apt to have just one flaw somewhere, and in the story of Jason and Medea the flaw was of a fatal kind. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.
