Medea

Medea

    Author: Euripides

    First Performance: 431 BC, Athens

    First English Translation: 1782

    Genre: Greek trag. in verse

    Setting: The palace of the King of Corinth, in the mythical past

    Cast: 5m, 3f, extras, chorus (f)

The prologue by the Nurse tells how Medea, a foreigner from Colchis, who deceived her father and killed her brother to help Jason win the Golden Fleece, now finds herself betrayed by him: Jason has determined to abandon her in order to marry the daughter of the King of Corinth. Worse still, Medea will be forced to leave Corinth, never to see Jason or her children again. Medea resolves to kill the King and his daughter, and, in order to cause Jason the greatest possible suffering, she will also murder their two young sons. Jason appears and tries to justify his decision by claiming that it is the...

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