Medea (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Euripides
- First Published: 431
- Type of Work: Play
- Type of Plot: Tragedy
- Time of Work: Remote antiquity
- Setting: Corinth
- Genres: Drama, Tragedy
- Subjects: Murder or homicide, Exile or expatriates, Marriage, Emotions, Revenge, Kings, queens, or royalty, Greek or Roman times, Greece or Greek people, Aging, Hatred
- Locales: Athens, ancient, Greece, ancient, Corinth, ancient
Characters Discussed
Medea (mih-DEE-uh), a princess of Colchis and the wife of Jason. Medea had aided Jason in avoiding the traps laid for him by her father, King Aeetes of Colchis, while regaining the Golden Fleece. Fleeing with Jason, she had murdered her own brother to aid in the escape. In Jason’s hereditary kingdom of Iolcus, where they first settled but where Pelias, Jason’s uncle, had cheated him of his rights, Medea tricked the daughters of Pelias into murdering their father. For this deed, Medea, Jason, and their two children were exiled. The play is set in...
[The entire page is 1099 words long]
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