Medea's Revenge Medea, a play by the Greek playwright Euripides, explores the Greek-barbarian dichotomy through the character of Medea, a princess from the"barbarian", or non-Greek, land of Colchis. Throughout the play, it becomesevident to the reader that Medea is no ordinary woman by Greek standards.Central to the whole plot is Medea's barbarian origins and how they are relatedto her actions. In this paper, I am attempting to answer questions such as howMedea behaves like a female, how she acts heroically from a male point of view,why she killed her children, if she could have achieved her goal without killingthem, if the murder was motivated by her barbarian origins, and how she dealswith the pain of killing her children. As an introduction to the play, the status of women in Greek societyshould be briefly discussed. In general, women had very few rights. In theeyes of men, the main purposes of women in Greek society were to do houseworksuch as cooking and cleaning, and bear children. They could not vote, ownproperty, or choose a husband, and had to be represented by men in all legalproceedings. In some ways, these Greek women were almost like slaves. There isa definite relationship between this subordination of women and what transpiresin the play. Jason decides that he wants to divorce Medea and marry theprincess of Corinth, casting Medea aside as if they had never been married.This sort of activity was acceptable by Greek standards, and shows thesubordinate status of the woman, who had no say in any matter like this. Even though some of Medea's actions were not typical of the averageGreek woman, she still had attitudes and emotions common among women. Forinstance, Medea speaks out against women's status in society, proclaiming thatthey have no choice of whom to marry, and that a man can rid themselves of a woman to get another whenever he wants, but a woman always has to "keep [her]eyes on one alone." (231-247) Though it is impr...
