This is a secondary source analysis, so the secondary materials provided must be utilized. I would recommend using each of the essays once in your writing. QUESTION: Write an essay arguing that Medea

The Ending of the "Medea" Author(syf & D U U L H ( & R Z K H U d Source: The Classical World, Vol. 76, No. 3 (Jan. - Feb., 1983yf S S 5 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of the Classical Association of the Atlantic States Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4349445 Accessed: 22-04-2020 01:09 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms The Johns Hopkins University Press, Classical Association of the Atlantic States are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Classical World This content downloaded from 198.246.186.26 on Wed, 22 Apr 2020 01:09:45 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms THE ENDING OF THE MEDEA In the Poetics Aristotle states that the lusis of the plot should come about from the action itself and not, as in the Medea, apo mechanes, by means of external contrivance. For this reason scholars almost inevitably ask why it is that Medea at the end of her play escapes in the dragon- drawn chariot of the Sun. The answers that they provide to this question are various. Of those proposed, the least helpful, it seems to me, are the ones which attribute this dramatic manner of escape to Medea's being a witch. More subtle but still representative of this school is the interpreta- tion of Conacher, who emphasizes the "character of the folk-tale witch which still attaches to Medea in the exploits recounted of her in Greece." For him "the only point of interest in the deus ex machina ending lies in the symbolic purpose which this device fulfills." That is, "by this macabre touch of symbolism, the poet is once again expressing the trans- formation of a human heroine back to the folk-tale fiend of magic powers." I A second school inclines toward the view that, since the lusis apo mechanes is the work of gods, we must assume that Euripides meant us to understand by the chariot that Medea herself has become a god. This identification of Medea as a divinity-a theos apo mechanes in the words of Cunningham 2-takes several forms. In the simplest, scholars remind us that she is a descendant of Helios, and stress those lines in the play in which the Sun is named. Especially useful as corroboration for this view is Medea's cry (764-766yf D I W H U V K H K D V J D L Q H G I U R P $ H J H X V D S O D F H R I U H - fuge in Athens: "O Zeus and Justice, daughter of Zeus, and light of He- lios, now we shall become victorious over my enemies." Burnett considers that Medea has become a personification of venge- ance, with her humanity "mortified" and "sloughed off." "Medea is no longer a woman when she appears in the chariot but she has been one. . . . Killing her sons has cost her. . .a suffering beyond that of all other women and by inflicting that suffering upon herself she has tainted her human victory while she became at last a truly impersonal alastor." I Similarly, Schlesinger speaks of Medea's "annihilation as a human be- ing"; combining this with the issue of her genealogy, he ends his discus- sion with the observation that "the granddaughter of Helios may stand in triumph on her dragon-chariot, but Medea the woman is dead." 4 Cunningham himself, after showing that Medea is to be identified as a god, does not accept her actual divinity. His view is that "the appearance of Medea in the exodos constitutes a sort of visual metaphor emphasizing I D. Conacher, Euripidean Drama: Myth, Theme, and Structure (Toronto 1967yf , 195, 198. 2 M. Cunningham, "Medea APO MPCHANPS," CP49 (1954yf . 3 A. Burnett, "Medea and the Tragedy of Revenge," CP68 (1973yf . 4 E. Schlesinger, "On Euripides' Medea," in Euripides: A Collection of Critical Essays (Englewood Cliffs 1968yf . 129 This content downloaded from 198.246.186.26 on Wed, 22 Apr 2020 01:09:45 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 130 CARRIE E. COWHERD the utter evil and callousness of Medea and her loss of human qualities as a result of what she has done. But it is only a metaphor and not a true apotheosis." I Knox extends this compromise: although he has charac- terized Medea as a hero like Achilles or Ajax, he calls her, at the end of the play, a "theos or at least something more than human." But he adds the important qualification that "Medea as theos must also represent some kind of irresistible power, something deeply rooted in the human situation, as dangerous as it is universal. It has something to do with re- venge for betrayal but its peculiar ferocity must stem from the fact that before she was a hero and through her action became a (stageyf W K H R V V K e was a woman." While all these discussions of Medea as theos shed some light on the play, the focus seems wrong. The fact and nature of the chariot fall into the same category as the fact and nature of the pharmaka used to corrode the Princess. It seems to me that the real question about the ending of the Medea is not "Why does Medea get away in a magic chariot sent by the Sun?" but "Why does Medea get away?" She has committed two sepa- rate crimes, the murder of the Princess and Creon and the murder of her children, but she gets away, or as Knox says, "she triumphs. . . .And she escapes the consequences of her actions, goes safe to Athens." 6 To understand why Medea escapes, we must re-examine her character and Jason's and the nature of their relationship. From the first, it is spoken of as more than an ordinary marriage. In the prologue the Nurse calls the new marriage a betrayal of Medea and the children, and reports (20-23yf W K D W Z U H W F K H G G L V K R Q R U H G 0 H G H D V K R X W V R D W K V D Q G F D O O V W K e gods to witness what sort of repayment she gets from Jason." I Burnett considers understanding the marriage as central to understanding the play. "It existed outside society as a thing sanctioned only by the gods the two had named. . . .These two were united as two states might be." 8 For her, Jason's oath-breaking and the complicity of Creon and the Princess account for Medea's revenge. The marriage is like a political alliance secured by theon pistis and hor- kon charis-translated by Burnett as "the lovely reciprocity of oaths." Jason must have sworn a permanent marriage with Medea. With any- thing less, her position in the play would always remain the same, lonely and city-less (255yf 0 H G H D I R U K H U S D U W P X V W K D Y H S U R P L V H G Z K D W H Y H U K H O p she could offer Jason-and children. We must include children because she concedes (490-491yf W K D W L W Z R X O G K D Y H E H H Q D O O R Z D E O H I R U - D V R Q W R G H - sire his new marriage if he had been childless. This concession occurs in Medea's first confrontation with Jason; the whole speech is instructive for the nature of their relationship. After noting that she saved Jason's life, and mentioning other incidents in Colchis and the murder of Pelias in lolcus, she turns to the crux (488-498yf : 5 Cunningham (note 2, aboveyf . 6 B. M. W. Knox, "The Medea of Euripides," YCS 25 (1977yf . 7 All textual references are from the edition and commentary of D. Page (London 1938yf . 8 Burnett (note 3, aboveyf . This content downloaded from 198.246.186.26 on Wed, 22 Apr 2020 01:09:45 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms THE ENDING OF THE MEDEA 131 And experiencing these things from me, you betrayed me, and you got a new marriage-bed, when there were children. For if you were still childless, it would be understandable for you to desire this mar- riage. The faith guaranteed by oaths is gone, nor can I learn if you think that the gods of old no longer rule or that the present laws for men are new, since you are aware that you are not faithful to your oaths, in respect to me. Alas, right hand which you so often took and these knees-how I have been ill-used by a vile man and I am cheated of my expectations. As each swore an obligation to the other, each also had individual rea- sons for entering into the alliance. These reasons are still of importance, since they motivate actions. For Medea, the reason clearly was feeling, generalized as thumos, particularized as love. As Jason says in response to Medea (530 ff.yf ( U R V Z L W K K L V X Q H U U L Q J D U U R Z V I R U F H G \ R X W R V D Y H P y body. But I will not press this too much, for where you benefited me, it is all right." By his manner of ascribing credit to Cypris and Eros, Jason intends to deny Medea's freedom of action and his obligation to her. Nevertheless, the fact remains that Medea took her oaths because of love. On the other hand, as even this quotation shows, Jason was simply looking to his own advantage. The Nurse's prologue as neatly marks the contrast. If the Argo had not been built, Medea would never have sailed to lolcus (8yf V W U L F N H Q L Q K H U K H D U W Z L W K O R Y H I R U - D V R Q H U R W L W K X P R n ekplageis' lasonosyf Q R U Z R X O G V K H K D Y H F R P H W R & R U L Q W K \f, "she her- self being an advantage to Jason in every way" (aute te panta xumpher- ous' Iasoniyf . The agon of the play is not confined to the actual debates between Medea and Jason, but extends throughout as an agon between feeling and absence of feeling, or rather between an excess of feeling and an ab- sence.9 Medea is characteristically associated with her thumos. I have al- ready cited the first mention of her in the play (8yf D V H U R W L W K X P R n ekplageis' Iasonos. Thumos appears nine times in the Medea, once refer- ring to the Princess, the remainder directly or indirectly to Medea.'0 It appears only three times in Hippolytus and once or twice in most of the other plays. No one translation or sense is adequate. At times, as in line 8, thumos seems to be the seat of emotion, but then and in most other in- stances it is also the appropriate emotion. In addition, Medea is de- scribed as oxuthumos and baruthumos (the latter a hapax in extant Euri- pides and the former used only twiceyf D Q G D V W K X P R X P H Q H D Q G G X V W K X - moumene. And Aegeus names her situation dusthumia. 9 But see G. Walsh, "Public and Private in Three.Plays of Euripides," CP 74 (1979yf , 295-301. He assumes that Medea has no thumos. 10 The eighth instance is from the antistrophe quoted below, line 639, which, I argue, re- fers also to Jason, but the wording nearly repeats (8yf H U W L W K X P R Q H N S O D J H L V O D V R Q - os: (639-640yf W K X P R Q H N S O [ ] D V K H W H U R L V H S L O H N W U R L V S U R V E D O R L G H L Q D . X S U L V 7 K H U H S H W L - tion of the combination "thumon ekplexas"' recalls Medea and her love; in actual fact, the thumos here belongs to the Chorus. In 1 152, the Messenger reports that Jason asked the Princess to cease from her thumos at seeing his children; here thumos can be little more than pique, however. This content downloaded from 198.246.186.26 on Wed, 22 Apr 2020 01:09:45 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 132 CARRIE E. COWHERD From line 8 through the ode in which the Chorus comments on Me- dea's decision to kill her children, in remarkable consonance with the play's movement, the context for thumos progresses from love to lamen- tation (108yf W R K D W H \f '2 to murder (865yf R X G X Q D V H L S D L G n hiketan pitnonton, /Itegxai chera phoinian/tlamoni thumoi. " Immediate- ly after this ode, in her disingenuous recantation to Jason, Medea herself summarizes her range of responses to his perfidy as thumos (870yf R X k apallachthesomai/thumou?" and in 883 she says she was "maten thu- moumene." But she does not give up her thumos. When she has learned that the Princess had accepted her gifts, she addresses it in the manner of Odysseus (1056yf ' R Q R W W K X P H G R Q R W G R W K L V O H W W K H P J R Z U H W F K , spare the children." Line 1079, no doubt the most famous from the play, best illustrates the importance of thumos for Medea: thumos de kreisson ton emon bou(eu- mat6n, generally translated as "my passion is stronger than my reason." Ton em6n bouleumaton cannot really bear the weight of this translation, since Medea has consistently and as recently as 1044-1045 and 1048 iden- tified ta bouleumata 2 as her plans to kill the Princess and the children. Formerly, therefore, her bouleumata and her thumos agreed. But after the children have returned from their fatal mission, her resolve is shaken, and ta bouleumata become plans to spare the children and carry them away with her. Even so, thumos kreisson applies well to Medea. This thumos is called excessive by the Nurse in the prologue and by the Chorus after the first confrontation of Medea with Jason. In the Nurse's final speech before the parodos, with reference to Medea, she makes a conventional appeal to The Mean in 122-123: "the practice of living on an even keel is better," and in 125-130: For the name of moderation wins first place for saying, and for practicing, it is by far the best thing for men. For things exceeding the right amount 13 have no power for mortals. But divinity, when it is angered, pays back greater ruin to a house. The choral song is very useful for our purposes because it comments on both Medea and Jason. We may consider the first strophe a comment on 11 In Medea's fawning on Creon; she says (309-31 1yf ) R U Z K D W Z U R Q J K D Y H \ R X G R Q e me? You married your daughter to the one to whom your thumos led you. But I hate my husband." Page follows Denniston, The Greek Particles (London 1934yf L Q P D N L Q J W K e sentence "all' emon posin/misO refer to the rhetorical question "su gar ti m' edikAsas?" Yet it seems to me that the first and lasting impression, at least, is that al/a sets up the ex- pectation of "my thumos leads me. . .", and we get instead, "but I hate my husband." 12 Bouleumata also occurs nine times; where it does not refer to Medea's plans for re- venge, it refers to Jason's plans for his new life as Creon's son-in-law and their joint plans for Medea's exile. See lines 270, 886, and especially Jason's speech at 449: "soi garparon ggn tnde kai domous echein/kouph6s pherousei kreisson6n bouleumata, /log6n matai6n hounek' ekpesti chihonos. 13 1 read huperballont'/ouden kairon for Page's huperballont'/oudena kairon (127- 128yf 7 K H W H [ W L V F R U U X S W D W W K L V O L Q H D Q G R X G H Q D L V D F R U U H F W L R Q 3 D J H D F F H S W V W K H U H D G L Q g with the translation, "excess does not mean profit," that is, "excess has no power for pro- fit." This involves a justification both of dunamai as governing a direct accusative and of kairos in the sense of "profit." What results does not fit well into the ode. This content downloaded from 198.246.186.26 on Wed, 22 Apr 2020 01:09:45 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms THE ENDING OF THE MEDEA 133 Medea and its antistrophe as referring to Jason (627-642yf ) U R P W K e strophe: Love coming over-much offers neither good reputation nor perfec- tion to men. But if Cypris should come just enough (halisyf Q R R W K H r god is so gracious. From the antistrophe: May sophrosune, the fairest gift of the gods, love me, and may dread Cypris never madden my heart (thumonyf I R U D Q R W K H U E H G , casting me into angry arguments and insatiable quarrels; but re- specting peaceful marriages, with a sharp mind, may she judge the beds of women. Initially, one supposes that the Chorus desires the sophrosune which Medea lacks, but as they sing, it becomes clear that the reference is also to Jason.'4 Sophrosune occurs only here in the Medea. In her discussion of Euripides, North gives primacy to the meaning of "self-control" with the additional connotations of "understanding" and "moderation." She notes Jason's lack of generosity and calls him "selfish and calculating, an example of pseudo sophrosyne." She goes on, however, to discuss in- adequate or partial sophrosune for Hippolytus and Pentheus. They thought they were sophron because they were Ichaste, but "we discover the narrowness and imperfection of the sophrosyne which the champion of reason claims to possess: he has chastity and sobriety, indeed, but without self knowledge, imagination, or genuine understanding of real- ity." 's From this description, Jason belongs with Hippolytus and Pen- theus: he too has claimed to be both sophos and s6phron (548-549yf E X t he is without genuine human feelings. Sophrosune must encompass not only the control or absence of excessive feeling but also the presence of feeling halis, "just enough." The second antistrophe reinforces this view (653-662yf : We saw; I do not have to tell the story from others. No city, no one of your dear ones pitied you who suffer the most awful of suffer- ings. May he perish gracelessly, for whom it is possible not to re- spect friends by opening the bolt of a pure mind. He will never be a friend to me. Jason's lack of feeling is alluded to in this choral song, but it is every- where evident. In his first speech, he pronounces the impending exile and the fury of Medea as no concern to him (451yf , Q W K L V U H E X W W D O W R 0 H G H D , he approves of her love-inspired saving of him, since it benefited him; he explicitly denies dissatisfaction with Medea or desire for his new wife- his marriage is simply a lucky find; he finds no fault with the children by Medea. That is, he neither loves nor hates Medea; he does not love his 14 As extra indication that this refers to Jason, one may note that it is Jason who desires another bed. 15 H. North, Sophrosyne: Self-Knowledge and Self-Restraint in Greek Literature (Itha- ca 1966yf . This content downloaded from 198.246.186.26 on Wed, 22 Apr 2020 01:09:45 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 134 CARRIE E. COWHERD new wife; he expresses no feeling for his children. Every consideration is for his personal advantage, and he even urges that on Medea (565-567yf : "For you, what need is there of children? but for me, it profits to benefit the living children by ones to come." If for Medea the motivating force is thumos, it is kerdos for Jason, as the Paidagogos attests (86-88yf ( Y H U \ R Q H O R Y H V K L P V H O I P R U H W K D Q K L s neighbor; some justly, others even for the sake of advantage (kerdous charinyf V L Q F H L Q I D F W W K H L U I D W K H U G R H V Q W O R Y H W K H V H E R \ V K H U H R Q D F F R X Q t of his marriage." Jason's looking out for his own advantage is part of his sophistic na- ture. In fact, Finley, in discussing the speeches of Euripides, character- izes this first one by Jason as an argument from advantage, to sumpher- on, and classifies Medea's as an argument from what is just, to dikaion.'6 Jason has no standard beyond self-interest. He considers his confronta- tion with Medea only as a contest of words (hamillan logonyf $ V K D V R I - ten been noted, he "makes the better argument the worse and the worse, the better." The Chorus congratulates him on adorning his words well (576yf 0 H G H D F D O O V K L P V N L O O H G D W V S H D N L Q J V R S K R V O H J H L Q \f (580yf D Q d clever at speaking (legein deinosyf D Q G K D Y L Q J D J R R G I U R Q W H X V F K H P R Q \f (585 and 584yf E X W I R U K H U Z K R H Y H U L V V N L O O H G D W V S H D N L Q J E H L Q J X Q M X V W , deserves the most punishment (pleisten zemianyf \f. Although many other passages can be adduced which illustrate Jason's interest in words over substance and advantage over feeling, it is perhaps sufficient to look at the final conversation between him and Medea. The language is conventional for grief but appropriate for Jason. He comes to save the children from the Corinthians, but it is he himself in whom he is interested. When he learns they are dead, he thinks only of himself (1310yf : K D W G R \ R X V D \ " + R Z \ R X K D Y H G H V W U R \ H G P H $ Q G D I W H r cursing Medea, he returns to himself (1347-1350yf , W L V W L P H I R U P H W o bewail my daimon, I who shall not have benefit of my newly married bed nor shall I have, living, the children whom I begot and brought up, but I have lost them." So Jason is punished because he broke his oaths, and he broke his oaths because he valued only his own advantage and skill with words. The Messenger who reports and describes to Medea the death of the Princess says as much. Although Page rejects the reference to Jason, clearly Jason is meant (1222-1230yf : Let your part be removed from speech; for you yourself will devise an escape from punishment. But not for the first time now do I con- sider mortal things a shadow, and without fear I would say that, of mortals, the ones seeming to be wise and the ones having a care for words, these deserve the greatest punishment (megisten zemianyf ) R r no one of mortals is a fortunate man; when wealth abounds, one might be luckier than another, but not fortunate. 16 J. H. Finley, Three Essays on Thucydides (Cambridge 1967yf . This content downloaded from 198.246.186.26 on Wed, 22 Apr 2020 01:09:45 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms THE ENDING OF THE MEDEA 135 From Medea's view and that of the Messenger, Jason deserves punish- ment, but they and everyone else expect and assume that Medea will es- cape punishment. In fact, Medea has said that only if she is caught in the palace, red-handed, will she have to die (381-383yf 6 R Z H U H W X U Q W R W K e original question: Why does Medea get away? We can repeat part of the previous quotation from Knox: "Medea... must... represent some kind of irresistible power. . . ." I submit that this power is thumos. With Medea it is part of her being against Jason's seeming and part of her deeds against his words. Earlier I quoted line 1079: "thumos de kreisson ton emOn bouleumat6n. " Not only is thumos stronger than the plans of Medea, it is stronger than the plans of Jason (1080yf W K X P R V Z K L F K Y H U y thing is responsible for the greatest evils for men." The Mean is best, but in a contest between Medea with her excess of thumos and Jason with none, Medea has to win. Even with her dragon-drawn chariot, she has not become a god. She has not ceased to be human, she has ceased to be a mother. But we see demonstrated in her, against Jason, the same vital force which Aphrodite demonstrates against Hippolytus and Dionysus against Pentheus. It is perhaps not good but it is real and mighty. 17 Howard University CARRIE E. COWHERD 17 An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Fall Meeting of the Classical As- sociation of the Atlantic States in Philadelphia on October 27, 1979. SamothLrace Excavations Conducted by the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University Volume 5: The Temenos PHYLLIS WILLIAMS LEHMANN and DENYS SPITTLE Located in the center of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, the Temenos appears to have been the site of ceremonies performed during the annual Samothracian festival. It is the earliest example of the extensive use of archaistic style in Greek sculpture. Part One contains the text and covers the history of the excavation. Part Two contains sixty plates, featuring restored plans, elevations, and sections of the building and the precinct. 0 Bollingen Series LX: 5 Pn 423 illustrations. 0 2 volumes, $125.00 U 41 William Street * Princeton, New Jersey 08540 This content downloaded from 198.246.186.26 on Wed, 22 Apr 2020 01:09:45 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms