Piety As Balance In Euripides' Medea

Philip Hisanori Miller Writing Sample

[email protected]

Classical Studies PhD.

Piety as Balance: Divine tJUIlOe, Lost ai6c:,r and Unknowable

nhm in Euripides' Medea

The frightful power of a more-than-human passionate will ({jUJ1~) and the disasters that result from a lack of respect (aiBws) for this power are themes that lie at the very heart of Euripides' Medea. Through a depiction of Medea's steadily growing {jUJ1~, the terrible sacrifice of humanity that an excess of spiritedness requires from a person is depicted in grand fashion as the play progresses. When this {jUJ1~ takes on Jason's irreverent and, at times, hubristic intellect, the clash between these two powerful forces, constantly struggling within the hearts of all men, stunningly illustrates the tragic consequences that failure to find a balance between these powers will ultimately produce. Only when they work together, allowing the more divine elements in man to harmonize with the fallible constructions of his own mind, can a mortal hope to find peace and happiness in life and it is the achievement of this harmonization that is the first step towards true piety. A precise definition of {jUJ1~ has evaded scholars for quite some time. According to the LSJ, it can represent as broad a concept as a person's soul and, hence, the fundamental source of any emotion, to something as narrow as the specific emotions of passion or anger. It is not a purely irrational force, as some have suggested, but rather a force that does not regard balanced reasoning as the essential component of the decision making process. As GailAnn Rickert notes\ its usage in tragedy is often vague and, in addition to its emotional connotations, it represents a "complex web" of inner principles, values, and beliefs that determine the way a person reacts to the world around them. In the context of this paper, {jUJ1~ is meant to be interpreted as a person's "spirit" in so much as it represents the essential root

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Rickert 100-101

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of a person's internal "life-force,,2 and the elemental power that signifies the divine spark of existence within all living things. It is god-like 3 in its awesomeness, insatiable in its appetite and desires, and, like a fire left untended, it can utterly consume a person if left unchecked. The control that Medea's {Jup6c; has over her throughout the course of this play is indicated in the opening lines of the prologue (6-8t: ou yap crv OEOTrOlV' hnl Mftoela mipyov~ Yil~ ETrAeVO' 'lwAK(a~ EpWTI eu~6v EKTrAayeio' 'Iaoovo~

Like a bolt of lightning awakening Frankenstein's monster, iPwc; "strikes" (EKTrAayeio') Medea's heart

and awakens her {Jull6c;, lighting the fuse that will continue to bum throughout the course of

({Juj./OV)

the drama until it reaches its end and wreaks havoc for all in its presence. From the very first mention of Medea's name, it is clear that desire/passion (iPwC;) and {Jup6c; are powerful, driving forces of her personality and even the sympathetic Nurse expresses her fear of what these forces may cause Medea to do (37). In fact, the Nurse's opening remarks about Medea foreshadow the emotional arc of the drama, as her sympathy (16-35) for Medea's very human predicament gives way to apprehension (36-45) and concern over the greatness of her {Jup 6c; (1 06-8). As the play develops, the chorus and audience will undergo this same cycle of emotions in response to Medea's actions 5 as her character slowly becomes less pitiable and more inhuman or divine. Medea's first onstage speech (214-66) is a deliberate attempt to generate sympathy for herself and a stunning example of Greek rhetoric as she suppresses her raging {Jup6c; in order to portray her

A definition along these lines is supported by LSJ, where ~uJ1ix; can mean "spirit, (as) the principle of life"

Here the Greek conception of a god (~E61;) and, hence, the divine, is meant to be understood as "the

personification of any more than human power in nature, or any force within the heart of man which is also

greater than the individual" (Grube 41-42).

4 David Konstan also notes in the prologue a foreshadowing of Medea's eventual divine transformation by the

repetition of the ~T] (1) and ~T]S (3,4) sounds before the mention of Medea's name (7) which may have been

meant to pun on the triple invocation of a god's name that began many hymns and prayers. He admits, though,

that his theory is highly speculative (Konstan, Medea: A Hint of Divinity?).

5 Conacher 187-188

6 Conacher 188

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wretched state. Though her {JUJ1~ refuses to remain entirely hidden, hinting at its power in the very last lines of the speech (265-6), her appeal to the chorus as a foreigner (222-4) and a woman (230-51),

betrayed by her husband (228-230, 255-6) and without a family (257-8), wins their compassion (267-8).

They can feel empathy for her because she depicts herself as a fellow human being suffering for reasons

beyond her control. After Medea speaks with Kreon, the chorus' sympathy for her increases (358-63) and,

with their support now firmly secure, she no longer feels the need to hide the more aggressive parts of her

nature from them. The pride and arrogance of her {JUJ1~ is fully apparent (368-9,376-7) in her next

speech to the chorus (364-409) but they still see her as a wretched fellow woman (SUOTTlIIE yUllal, 358) and ignore her more uncanny urges (374, 378-80) in their pity. In her first confrontation with Jason, Medea gives another highly rhetorical speech? that devolves into a passionate outburst (502-16) as her {JUJ1~ is no longer able to restrain itself in the presence of the man she utterly despises. As Jason departs, it is evident that her {JUJ1~ is starting to consume her by the way she mocks his supposed "longing" (rroBGJI, 623) for his new bride and one can already see the conflict between her {JUJ1~ and her more civilized judgments brewing on the horizon. Medea cannot believe Jason when he claims that it was not an "impulsive yearning" (ijJEPG:JI, 556) for a new marriage that caused him to betray her because she is unable to believe that anything but passion could cause someone to commit such a heinous crime. After all, as the Nurse mentioned in the prologue (6-8), it was just such a sudden impulse of passionate desire ({pGJTI, 8) that caused Medea to betray her family. The ascendance of Medea's {JUJ1~ becomes inevitable in her third speech to the chorus (764­ 810). Bursting with joy at having found a safe haven with Aigeus at Athens, her {JUJ1~ revels (765-68) in the fact it may now freely pursue the path of vengeance it so desires. This joy soon turns to sorrow when Medea, succumbing to the drive of her {JUJ1~, confirms the Nurse's earlier fears (37) and

7 As Lloyd notes, Medea's first speech to Jason is almost unusually rhetorical, especially in the beginning parts, in that it sticks so closely to the formal speech structure (proem, then narration, then argument, then epilogue) advocated by the early rhetoricians. He suggests that this is meant to highlight her departure from such clear thinking as the speech (and play) progresses and her more passionate side takes over (Lloyd 21,42)

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acknowledges the plan she must now pursue. In deciding to kill the children (792), the one who gave life to them becomes the one who will take it away and, thus, her transformation into something divine, or at least something with more than human power, is nearly complete. The "human and potentially tragic Medea vanishes"g as her lJU/1 Ol; takes possession of her and a ·"lust for vengeance that overpowers even maternallove,,9 becomes her driving force. With victory nearly at hand, Medea's lJU/1Ol; has no trouble feigning submissiveness when it encounters Jason again (869-99). By taking a back seat in this episode, it allows Medea's more human feelings to resurface, if only briefly, when she looks upon her children (899-905, 930-1) but there is little doubt that her lJU/1 Ol; will not falter in the presence of the one she so longs to take vengeance upon. Medea's Great Monologue (1019-80) occurs between two scenes that represent the opposite emotions that allowing lJU/1Oc; to dominate her actions will produce. First, the Paidagogos' speech, and Medea's response to it, reveals the tremendous sorrow that her revenge plans will cause her by requiring her to kill her own children. Medea now struggles between the very human emotion of maternal love and her more than human desire for revenge. It is not so much a struggle between lJU/1Ol; and reason as it is the birthing struggles of a divine force, a battle between her inner Jekyll and Hyde, with Medea's indomitable lJU/1Ol; attempting to assert its dominance over her vulnerable human beliefs. In the end, Medea finally admits to herself that her lJU/1Ol; is the "more powerful" (Kpdooc.Jv, 1079) force lO , making her submission to it complete. The Messenger then arrives with news of the princess' and Kreon's death and Medea's now fully dominant lJU/1Ol; cannot resist the chance to gloat in the tremendous victory it has procured, out of circumstances that seemed all but hopeless to Medea at the start of the play.

Conacher 194 Grube 147 10 In this context, it is almost irrelevant what is actually meant by rwv E/lWV {3ouAEU/lUrwV and the age old

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debate can, thus, be by-passed. All that matters is that Medea acknowledges that her {}UIJ.~ is the "stronger" power. For a much more thorough discussion of these two lines (1079-80), please refer to the articles by Irwin, Moline, and Rickert listed in this paper's bibliography and also the discussion on Medea's Great Monologue in Mastronarde's edition of the Medea, also listed in the bibliography.

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The confrontation between Jason and Medea at the end of the play serves mainly to drive home the motif already expressed by Medea's Great Monologue ll . As Jason is forced to cower before Medea

ex machina, a woman who sacrificed herself to the elemental power oftJuj.lOr;, the weakness of humanity against divine forces is driven home with grand symbolism. The appetite of that divine spark of life within Medea has consumed her humanity, proving her statement (1080) that {JUj.lOr; really is the greatest evil for mortals (J./EyfoTGJV... KaKc3v {3pOTOi). This terrible outcome, however, has been hinted at in numerous ways throughout the play. One should remember that, for the average 5th Century Greek, "goodness [was] not an inevitable quality of a god,,12 and the term DE/vos("terrible, dread, awesome") was often used to describe them, as the chorus in Medea describes Kupris (642-643). Medea's capacity for DE/VOS- action is, once again, implied in the opening lines of the Nurse, where Medea is explicitly labeled DE/VOS- (44). Kreon, foolishly, doubts Medea is capable of doing anything DE/VOS- (356) in one day. As Medea's {Juj.lOr; strengthens, it urges her to creep towards the DE/VOS- (403) and the chorus, after hearing of Medea's plan to kill her children (792), wonders how she will ever find such DE/VOS- daring (859) to attempt the deed. These remarks about her ability to perform DE/VOS- actions, however, soon become comments on the DE/vos-things she has already done. In the Messenger's description of the horrendous death Medea caused the princess and Kreon, in addition to it being the very first word out of his mouth upon his arrival (1 121)13, DE/VOS- is used 4 times (1167, 1184, 1202, 1214), all describing the DE/vos-effects Medea's poison caused and vividly portraying the destructive potential of DE/vos-for

mortals. Finally, after the murder of her children, Jason describes Medea as the doer of DE/VOS- things (1294), making her transformation into a divine-like figure complete.

11 Conacher is right to assert that the purpose of the deus ex machina at the end of the play is merely symbolic (Conacher 197) but this should not be seen as a pejorative dismissal of it. The visual effect of such a symbol alone must have had a tremendous impact on audiences after having experienced the roller-coaster of emotions that the play has just dragged them through and may have affected them in ways outside of any single theme expressed within the play. 12 Grube 42 B It should be noted that the authenticity of this line is doubted due to its absence in some medieval manuscripts.

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Other subtleties that foreshadow Medea's transfonnation are the frequent animal metaphors used to describe Medea. She is compared to a bull (92, 187-8), a lion (187, 1342-3), and her method of causing pain is often described as biting or stinging (817, 1345, 1370). These metaphors serve to unassumingly predict Medea's eventual dehumanization and also highlight the savagery of divine action. To be controlled by {}UI1Oc:; is divinely empowering precisely because {}UI1Oc:; is a savage force that acts out of intense emotion and without regard for consequence. The Olympian gods, being immortal, have no need to consider consequences when they act because they can hardly be affected by them in any significant way. It is mortals who must use reason and plan with caution in order to avoid unpleasant, and often unforeseen, consequences. Thus, a human who is controlled by his or her {}UI1Oc:;, as Medea is, blurs the line between the mortal and the divine. No one believes that Medea has actually become immortal by the end of the play but her actions certainly have more in common with the gods than with other mortals (child killing, prophecy, magical powers, obsessive drive to avenge impiety and oath-breaking). Besides,

it is not a god's immortality that is worshiped so much as it is his or her power and Medea is certainly a powerful figure by the end of the play, whether divine or not. For the Greeks, who already cast their gods in the image of men, it would not be hard to accept that there is a potentially divine spark, or {}UI1Oc:;, within everyone. This leads to considerations of another theme of the Medea: showing proper reverence, or

aiowS". not just for the gods but for men as well. If all men possess a divine {}UI1Oc:;, showing aiowS" towards your fellow man is just as much an act of piety as showing aiowS" for the gods. There is an obvious lack of aiowS" between all the major characters in the Medea and, above all, a tremendous lack of

aiowS" for the "spontaneous movements of the heart ofman,,14 which is at the very root of Dionysiac piety, a theme that will be returned to later. AiowS" represents not just reverence, though, but also respect for the feelings and opinions of others and a sense of conscience. There is a distinct theme in the Medea that cold and calculating reason is starting to replace true aiowS" among men, who think superior

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Musurillo 304

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reasoning will allow them to act however they wish, and that such beliefs are greatly mistaken and will ultimately lead to disaster l5 . If Medea is the allegorical embodiment of pure {JUI-lOr; in this play, then Jason is certainly the allegorical embodiment of pure reason l6 and, thus, lack of aiowf. His abrupt entrance onto the dramatic stage is immediately preceded by the chorus' lament that there is no longer any aiowf in the land of Greece (olio' fT' aiSc:;Jf 'EAAaol nil /-IEyaAal /-lEVEl, 439-30) and his first confrontation with Medea (446-626) showcases his arrogant faith in his own reasoning at the expense of respect for others. He embodies the "less pleasant side of the Greek virtue of oCt.xppoolivrf'17 and, just as Medea's speech in this section displays her defining characteristic, a growing {JUI-lOr; which obliterates all other judgments, his opening remarks exhibit his single-minded devotion to reason. Jason is emotionless, with no sense of morality that cannot be reasoned away, and his highly self-conscious rhetoric (522) often makes him seem insincere l8 . When directly contrasted with Medea's fiery {JuI-lOr;, his calculations seem obnoxiously cold and though his replies are always perfectly logical, they always seem to lack something l9 • He is clearly fed up with his wife's unreasonable (JUI-lOr; (446-50,550,555-57,568-573) and obviously blames her current misfortunes on her lack of foresight (448-50). He tells her aim] nio' cAou· Wloev' OOov a/niiJ (605) he tells her and leaves it at that. Every decision Jason makes can be expressed quantitatively and this overly analytical approach has removed any sense of aiSc::.Jf from his life. His new marriage is based on calculations to benefit him, not any sense of love (553-56, 593-94), and he values children not out of

This section on aiSiJr owes much to David Kovacs' "Zeus in Euripides' Medea". However, he focuses on the motif of oath-breaking which I neglect in favor ofthe more abstract notion that Medea's obsession with oaths represents a distant desire for aiS~r in contrast to Jason's outright rejection ofaiS~r in favor of "cleverness" that lets him reason his way around breaking oaths. 16 Due to the variety of words that Euripides uses in this play to express notions of reason, intellectualism and apparent wisdom (owcppwv, owcppoovvTJ, oocpo), cpPTJV, CPpOVEW, and their derivatives), the English term "reason" will be used in this section, for simplicity's sake, instead of a Greek term. 17 Grube 156 18 Lloyd 43 19 Grube 155 15

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any sense of alOe:'.» for mankind and the gift of life but rather for the purpose they may one day serve20 as a "bulwark to [his] house" ({puJia OGJJiaOIV, 597i l . It is this failure to show alOe:'.» for mankind that, perhaps, prompts Medea to think the gods may help her bring down ruin on his new marriage (625). Jason's reasoning erroneously leads him to believe that the world around him will act reasonably as well. After the murder of Kreon and the princess, Jason rushes home to protect his children from the royal family (EJiGJIICi rrafoc.J1I r]A8011 EKOc{)Oc.J1I (3foll/Jirj Jio{ TI cpaoc.Jo' of rrpoarjKovTE> yillEI 1303­ 4), never suspecting that a mother could do something so incredibly illogical as harm her own children. Even after seeing Medea ex machina, and being forced to admit his defeat at her hands, it is his own poor reasoning (TOT' ou cpPOVGJV, 1329) that he blames, not any divine force. As Grube claims, "one of the most deeply ingrained human characteristics is that in moments of overwhelming sorrow, when stunned by misfortune, especially if they feel the misfortune to be undeserved, men do doubt and ... curse their gods." By blaming his previously poor reasoning for his current misfortunes instead of some god, Jason is showing that he reveres the power of reason more than the power ofthe gods and, thus, his appeals to them (1389, 1402-3, 1405-10) are futile. He then goes on to curse Medea's arrorrTVoTo,}2 cppiva (1373), completely failing to see that it was her {)Uj1Oe; that drove her to murder her children (1079-80).

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It is interesting to note that, when mentioning children, Jason uses TiKIIOllfar more often than he uses

TTa/&r. If one entertains the idea that perhaps the a1O- root embedded within rra/&r could hint, not etymologically, of course, but purely as phonetic device of Euripides', at some notion of reverence for the divine gift of life that children represent, could Jason's choice not to use this word, in favor of TiKIIOII, be Euripides'

subtle way of showcasing Jason's lack of aioGJr? Of the 10 times that Jason does use TTalOEr, 4 are not referring

to his own current children and 5 occur within the last 100 lines of the play, after Jason and Medea have

undergone a dramatic role-reversal. This is, of course, all highly speculative.

21 Jason's attitude towards children, it should be noted, is by no means abnormal or unique among men in

antiquity. The continuation of one's bloodline was, of course, a very important thing for a Greek male and

examples of this abound throughout Classical literature and myth. However, the point is still relevant to this paper

in that this behavior represents an example of an overly rational viewpoint that Euripides may be critiquing.

22 CrrrOTTTl/OTOV literally means "spat out" and, hence, comes to mean "abominable, repulsive". In this context,

however, the difference between the literal and figurative meanings is quite significant since if Medea "spat out"

her rppilla, Jason is cursing the fact that she no longer has rppiva. If the word is used figuratively, though, then

Jason is simply cursing Medea's grotesque rppilla and poor reasoning once again. This ambiguity, thus, leaves

definitive interpretation of this passage impossible within the context of this paper.

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Kreon is another character in the drama who fails to show aloG;s. He thinks he is showing it (349) by letting Medea stay in Corinth for one more day (355) but all he is really doing is trusting his seemingly reasonable assumption that one extra day is not enough time for Medea to do anything that would cause him harm (ou yap TI OpaOEIS OEIIIOIl WII rpof3os /l' EXEI, 356). He is mistaking the calculations of human reason for the aloG;S he earlier (326) refused to show Medea and, in doing so, justifies the claim that the chorus will soon make that there is no longer aloG;S in Greece (439-40). He will very soon come to regret the lack 'of aloG;she shows for Medea's {JuJ-lix;, and its growing capacity for OEIIIOS action, and this is why Medea calls him foolish (/lCtJpfaS, 371) upon his departure. Like Jason, he thinks that thinking a situation through will allow him to do as he pleases and avert disaster. Both Jason and Kreon fall victim to their unjustified confidence in their ability to make perfectly informed decisions through the use of reason. Their reason has replaced their aloG;S for mankind and the divine because they think, whether consciously or not, that they no longer need to show basic measures of respect, like considering another person's feelings and position, if they take the time to calculate a way around it. This leads to selfish behavior, as the Paidagogos comments on earlier in the play (85-6), and, ultimately, to that most atrocious of crimes to the Greeks, hubris 23 • To think that human reason can be strong enough to outsmart elemental forces and divine intentions or powers, like {JuJ-lix;, is a folly that any Olympian would surely look down upon and, thus, faith in reason is, in of itself, a type of irreverence. This is what Medea is referring to when she accuses Jason of allafOEla (472), the worst of all the sicknesses in men (rj /lEyfoTT] Tc3l1 Ell all()pWTTOIS 1I00CtJII TTaoc3l1, 471-2). Both tpWC; (330) and {JUJ-l ix; (1079-80) may be a J-lEVaC; KaKoc; but only allafOEla is a disease (1I000S), something that gets

worse and more corruptive the longer it is inside a person24 • It is this disease that Medea claims is

23 If this seems a bit of a stretch, note Medea's claim (1366) that iJ8pu; is to blame for the children's destruction.

This line follows Medea's comment that Jason's v6aal;" (a'vai6ELa as explained in the following argument) caused

their death, clearly showing that, at least for Medea, these two terms are related.

24 Ironically, by this definition, Medea's {JUJ,lCx; could perhaps also be labeled a IIOOOS. With both main characters,

then, ailing from a disease, the recurrent motif of medical imagery/language (60, 134, 197, 199, 245, 283, 520,

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responsible for the death of her children (GS 7TaIOE), GJ) GJAE08E 7TaTpGJlal VOOGJ/, 1364)25 and the ever-prophetic Nurse may even foreshadow the destructive potential of this illness in the prologue when she comments that, in the current situation, the dearest ties of friendship are sick (VOOEI n:f qJfA TaTa, 16). Ifthe conclusion of the Medea is of any significance, then surely Jason's avafOEla is a far worse offense than Medea's unreasonableness. The fallacy of over-confidence in

reason~

at the expense of aioG:J), is that even perfect reasoning

cannot predict or control TUX17, a person's fate or fortune. Divine powers, on the other hand, are not only able to foresee, or even control, the unpredictable outcomes of TUX17 but, being immortal and everlasting, they are not really affected by them should they work against them. This is why the gods deserve aioG:J) and why every mortal, at least to some degree, aspires to become immortal. The great tragedy of mortal life is that no amount of preparation, of any kind, is able to secure one's prosperity against the volatile force of TUX17, as Jason's fate exemplifies. The chorus says as much (1104-1111) when lamenting the plight of mothers and the disputed closing lines of the drama (1415-1419) make this point explicit. In fact, even the very first lines of the play (1-6) express this notion when the Nurse laments (Er8' ~EA '. ..) that circumstances have not turned out some other way. The frequent use of nautical imagery throughout the play develops this theme as well, since a sailor at sea is completely at the mercy of TUX17 no matter what preventative measures he may take. Medea, whom the gods have tossed about on unmanageable waves of evil (a7Topov... KAVOGJVa... KaKc3v, 362-3), looks for a harbor to take refuge in (258, 442, 769) as she is pursued by enemies with sails open to the wind (277). Jason too, the captain of the Argos, has to take precautions to keep his ship from faltering against Medea's wearisome tongue-lashings (523-5). The most dramatic expression of this theme spans the arc of the entire story line as Medea and Jason undergo a complete reversal in TUX17 by the end of the play. As Jason's character gets weaker, and 1183) gains new significance. See Mastronarde's commentary on these lines for a more in-depth analysis and

alternative interpretations.

25 It is somewhat odd that Jason does not deny this claim.

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increasingly tragic, Medea's {JujJi:k; grows stronger and, once this divine force has taken control and the human Medea has vanished, the audience's, and the chorus', empathy (1251-70) for her vanishes as well. In their final confrontation (1317-1414) a calm and confident Medea quarrels with an emotionally distraught Jason struggling to find the words to express his utter contempt for her. Upon hearing of his children's death (1310), Jason lets out a Medea-like wail (orJ101) and his words (c3) J1' CbTc.JAEOG») carry a faint echo of Medea's first speech on stage (ic.J J10f J101, rrc3) av oAofJ1Gv, 97). By the same token, parts of Medea's first speech ex machina (Aiy' ET TI {30UATJI, 1320) may remind one of the words spoken by Jason (ET TI {30UATJI... Aiy: 610-12) before departing after their first confrontation.

Perhaps the most poignant expression of this theme comes during Medea's confrontation with Kreon (330-331):

MT]. cpeu cpeu, R>poTole; epc...:>Tee; we; KaKov IJEya. Kp. chrwe; av, 01IJaI, Kat lTapaOT(;)OIV -ruXai. The root of all the problems experienced in the Medea lies in Kreon's response that it is not so much people's desires or passions that bring them ruin but how those desires and passions interact with the circumstances, or rUXTJ, they must operate within. Although {JujJi:k;, in its purest sense, is impervious to rUXTJ, man is not and this is what makes Medea a tragic figure. Depending on the situation one finds

oneself in, {JujJi:k; can empower a person to feats of great tragedy (like killing one's children) or to feats of great triumph (like taking vengeance, against impossible odds, on those who have acted unjustly). In Medea's case, the inner struggle displayed in her Great Monologue (1019-80) represented the conflict between her mortal and immortal elements and her eventual submission to her divine {JujJi:k; (1079) cost her her humanity. SUjJi:k; itself is not the greatest of evils for mortals but rather mixing one's {JujJi:k; with the wrong rUXTJ.

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As the scales of rUXT7 tip back and forth throughout the play, the tremendous lack of balance in all the characters' lives can be perceived and this detail certainly factors into their ultimate fates. Since

rUm is unknowable and yet can radically affect everything, perhaps acting in moderation, that Greek ideal, is the best course to take. The gods certainly tend to view extreme behavior as hubristic and punish it accordingly and the Nurse, whose predictions never falter throughout the play, unambiguously states the following (125-30): TWV yop I..lETpiwv lTpWTa I..lEV EilTEIV

TOVVOl..la VIKOI, xpi;oBai TE l..laKpWI AWloTa [3POTOIOlV' TO 0' VlTEp[36:AAOVT' ovOeva KatpOV OvvaTal BVTlTOIS, I..lEi£;ovS 0' (nas, chav opYloBi;1 oail..lwv OlKOIS, O:lTeOWKEV

The chorus voices a similar idea (627-31) after the very unbalanced first scene between Jason and Medea and even the scene with Aigeus may serve to develop this notion. The Aigeus scene is perhaps the only extended scene in the drama in which both characters have no problem in viewing the other as their equal and the civilized discourse between the passionate Medea and the wise Aigeus show that these two ideals can work in harmony. Not surprisingly, this is also the only scene in the play in which both characters depart being better off than when the scene started and having legitimately gained something they wanted26 . Aigeus' arrival from Delphi may also have caused a subtle flash of the famous Delphic maxim, ~110T]V

ayav, to pass through the minds of those in the audience. Even the whole coincidental nature of

the scene, long criticized ever since Aristotle's Poetics27, may serve simply to highlight the more prosperous aspects of rUXT7 28 and its randomness is just another depiction of this motif.

26 Though Medea certainly uses persuasive language and conceals the whole truth, she does not do this with the intention of harming Aigeus in the future and, thus, her disposition towards him is clearly preferable to that of her disposition towards either Kreon or Jason. 27 Although less so in more recent scholarship. See Sfyroeras' "The Ironies of Salvation: The Aigeus Scene in Euripides' Medea" (1995) or Worthington's "The Ending of Euripides' 'Medea'" (1990) in the bibliography for just a few examples. 28 Kovacs seems to make a somewhat related point when he notes that merely the presentation of some sort of divine coincidence represents a certain theological belief (Kovacs 49).

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Moderation is clearly lacking, to an extreme degree, in the personalities of both Jason and Medea. They are both strong willed characters whose own natures cause them to become victims of n/XTJ and, thus, both are revealed as tragic figures by the end of the play, making it unclear as to who the audience should feel miiJoc; for. Mortals need to use reason when their iJUj.lOe; becomes enraged in order to keep it in check and live normal lives without becoming a threat to those around them. However, they should not let this reason cut them off completely from their iJUj.lOe; because this will lead to selfish behavior and a hubristic over-confidence in one's own ability to predict the outcomes of the events in one's life. Neglecting to strike a balance between these two opposites will eventually lead to a failure to show proper ai8c:Jf for the people and the world around one's self. This happens to Medea, as a result of the former

condition, because it causes her to not care about the consequences of her actions and, thus, she causes great harm to herself and everyone around her. It happens to Jason, as a result of the latter condition, because he seems to think that an act is not CIvafOe/a if it can be rationally explained. Neither reason nor iJUj.l Oe; is condemned outright by Euripides, only the disastrous results of failing to strike a balance

between these two powerful forces and the mistaken belief that they can operate in isolation of each other. Given this context, the chorus' already elaborate praise of Athens, where Io<j>lm 1tapEcSpou~ ... -EpwTa~ (843), is heightened even further.

Outside of the context of the internal drama of the play, the Medea can be interpreted as an allegory29 for what happens to people when they fail to show Dionysiac Piety30 for the world around them, a theme which Euripides grew more interested in towards the end of his career31 . Dionysiac Piety consists of proper

aiS~f

for, and acceptance of, the elemental forces at work in the world and,

specifically, for the divine gift of peace and freedom which this acceptance can bring. It is particularly appropriate for those mortals who acknowledge the more turbulent aspects of life and seek balance

Whether Euripides intended this at this early stage in his career will probably never be known but that does not mean this theme could not have been lurking in his subconscious all along. 30 I borrow this term, with a somewhat broader connotation, and the methods of its application from Musurillo's article "Euripides and Dionysiac Piety (Bacchae 370-433) 31 Specifically in his final masterpiece, the Bacchae 29

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between what can be controlled and what cannot. Its opposite is "cleverness" of the sort that some men think to possess and use to try to explain away the more mysterious aspects of nature and to doubt the divine elements of existence. In the context of the Medea, characters attempt to use reason to try to suppress the elemental force at work within themselves and those around them, the divine eupOc;. Such attempts, as the play shows, are doomed to failure for the simple reason that a force powered by mortals, as human reason is, will always fail when it attempts to take on a divine force, such as eupOc;, rather than trying to work in harmony with it. To reject eupOc; in favor of reason is to hubristically reject a divine gift and to show alia/DE/a, simultaneously, towards both the men who possess it and the gods who bestow it. Observing the violent outcome this leads to at the end of the play, the audience, consciously or not, undergoes a sort of spiritual empowerment or, perhaps, "metaphysical solace,,32 as they leave the theater in awe (aio~r) of the power that eupOc; is able to exercise, for both good and evil, on the world around it, a true mark of piety.

32

To borrow a Nietzschean phrase

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Bibliography and Works Cited

Abel, D. H. "Euripides' Deus ex Machina: Fault or Excellence." The Classical Journal, Vol. 50, No.3 (Dec., 1954), pp. 127-130. Conacher, D.J. Euripidean Drama: Myth, Theme and Structure. London: Oxford University Press, 1967. Cowherd, C. E. "The Ending ofthe 'Medea'." The Classical World, Vol. 76, No.3 (Jan. - Feb., 1983), pp. 129-135. Griffiths, E.M. "Euripides' 'Herakles' and the Pursuit of Immortality." Mnemosyne, Fourth Series, Vol. 55, Fasc. 6 (2002), pp. 641-656. Grube, G.M.A. The Drama of Euripides. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1941. Irwin, T.H. "Euripides and Socrates." Classical Philology, Vol. 78, No.3 (Jul., 1983), pp.183­ 197. Konstan, D. "Medea: A Hint of Divinity?" The Classical World, Vol. 101, No.1 (2007), pp. 93­ 94. Kovacs, D. "Zeus in Euripides' Medea." The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 114, No.1 (Spring, 1993), pp. 45-70. Lawrence, S. "Audience Uncertainty and Euripides' Medea." Hermes, Vol. 125, No.1 (1997), pp.49-55. Lloyd, M. The Agon in Euripides. Oxford: Claredon Press, 1992. Mastronarde, D. J. Euripides, Medea. Cambridge: University Press, 2002. McCulloh, W. E. "'Metaphysical Solace' in Greek Tragedy." The Classical Journal, Vol. 59, No. 3 (Dec., 1963), pp. 109-115. Moline, J. "Euripides, Socrates and Virtue." Hermes, Vol. 103, No.1 (1975), pp. 45-67. Musurillo, H. "Euripides and Dionysiac Piety (Bacchae 370-433)." Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 97 (1966), pp. 299-309. Musurillo, H. "Euripides' Medea: A Reconstruction." The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 87, No.1 (Jan., 1966), pp. 52-74. Newton, R. M. "Ino in Euripides' Medea." The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 106, No.4 (Winter, 1985), pp. 496-502. 15