Violence and Women: Exploring the Medea Myth

The archetypal story of Medea is a cautionary tale for our era.  Jason and Medea’s marriage, favored by the gods, represents an attempt at a union of opposites very far from each other.  They represent the masculine and feminine principles, covering a wide range of psychological, sociological, and historical aspects.  This synthesis fails. In the myth, as Euripides presents it, the failure is caused by Jason’s regression and submission to the exclusivity of the patriarchal principle — the Old King.  Medea, who not only represents the feminine but also the forces of Nature and Transformation, is profoundly incompatible with this regression.  She reacts!  She destroys and creates havoc.  This is what the unconscious does when it is not heard or denied.  In the end Medea is saved by the gods, the divine principles or psychic laws that regulate the laws of Nature and Transformation in the psyche.  They support her to the bitter end.

Table of Contents

Preface 

PART ONE 

Introduction 

The Medea Rage 

The Myth of Medea 

Euripides: Medea 

PART TWO 

Historical and Cultural Background 

Euripides' Place in Greek Theatre in Fifth Century BC 

The Truth of Medea for the Greeks 

The Universality of Medea's Truth 

PART THREE 

Edith 

Jason 

Medea & Jason 

The Poet and the Women 

Concluding Remarks 

Epilogue 

Bibliography