23)

"A single action" means that the play should have one plot, no subplots, and there should be nothing in the play that distracts from the single through-line of the play.

Everything that happens in Medea flows from Medea's obsessive, all-consuming need for revenge.

It might be argued that there's a slight deviation from the plot when Creon is accidentally killed trying to save Glauce from the fatal effects of the poisoned robe that Medea gave her, but Creon's death is nonetheless a result of Medea's vengeance.

Tragedy endeavours, as far as possible, to confine itself to a single revolution of the sun, or but slightly to exceed this limit. (Poetics, part 5)

According to Aristotle, in order to adhere to the unity of time, the action of a tragic play should occur within approximately twenty-four hours.

Most ancient Greek tragic plays require a serious stretch of the imagination to believe that the events in the play happen within the required time period. It seems entirely possible, however, that the events in Medea actually occur within twenty-four hours.

Coincidentally, this exact time period is mentioned in Medea and all but guarantees that the play conforms to the unity of time.

Creon hears that Medea has vowed to take revenge on Jason for abandoning her and marrying Creon's daughter, Glauce. In order to prevent any danger to Jason and Glauce, Creon banishes Medea and her children from Corinth, effective immediately.

Medea appeals to Creon to give her just one day to arrange to leave Corinth with her children.

MEDEA. For one day only leave me in thy land
At peace, to find some counsel, ere the strain
Of exile fall, some comfort for these twain,
Mine innocents; since others take no thought,
It seems, to save the babes that they begot.

CREON. Mine is no tyrant's mood. Aye, many a time
Ere this my tenderness hath marred the chime
Of wisest counsels. And I know that now
I do mere folly. But so be it! Thou
Shalt have this grace. But this I warn thee clear,
If once the morrow's sunlight find thee here
Within my borders, thee or child of thine,
Thou diest!

Given one day, Medea has ample time to effect her revenge on Jason and Glauce, accidentally cause the death of Creon, and kill her own children, all before nightfall. Given Medea's history of wreaking vengeance on anyone and everyone who crosses her, this is all in a day's work.

As for the unity of place, Aristotle makes no mention of it in Poetics, but the French classicists deduced that the unities of action and time which Aristotle addressed in Poetics logically imply a unity of place.

The action of Medea occurs in a location that can be imagined as a road or clearing in front of Medea's house in Corinth. What doesn't actually happen in front of Medea's house is reported there by the Chorus (or its Leader) or a Messenger, so other locations aren't necessary.

One significant departure from the unity of the location in front of Medea's house is what occurs on top of Medea's house.

[While the Attendants are still battering at the door Medea appears on the roof, standing on a chariot of winged Dragons, in which are the children's bodies]

Nevertheless, the roof of Medea's home is close enough to the front of Medea's home to be considered essentially the same location. Also, the French classicists expanded the unity of place to include any location that could be reached in twenty-four hours, and the roof of Medea's house easily qualifies under that criteria.

The classical unities come from Aristotle's Poetics. It is not uncommon for Euripides to frame the plots for his plays with external retrospective narration at the beginning and external prospective narration at the end of the play. The effect is to suggest that the play is centered on a single day from an extended story. The Nurse in Medea describes the voyage of the Argo through the Symplegades to Colchis to get the Golden Fleece for Pelias (1–6). This description is followed by a retelling of Medea falling in love with Jason and sailing to Iolcus (6–8), where she persuades the daughters of Pelias to kill their father (9–10). Medea then goes into exile in Corinth where she lives happily with Jason as man and wife (10–15). It is at this point that the Nurse describes the beginning of the actual plot: Jason’s remarriage (16–19), and Medea’s response to it (20–45). This narrative at the end of the prologue speech moves seamlessly into a dramatized presentation of the events.

The three unities refer to action, time and place: The action should be one whole and take place over one day and in one place.

In this play, Medea's husband, Jason, has abandoned her and their children for another woman. Afraid that she might harm the children in her jealous rage, her father has banished her from Corinth. She has begged for and been granted just one more day to prepare. There, in a nutshell, is how Euripides incorporate the unities into this play. The action is Medea's revenge against Jason. It takes place in one city, Corinth, over the course of one day.

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