WHAT IS UNUSUAL ABOUT THE MEDEA?
1. It has an unusual opening by an old Nurse, not a god or hero; a barbarian, not a Greek; and a slave woman, not a male tyrant or aristocrat. Like Shakespeare’s Othello, the play is intensely domestic and deals with the destruction of a family. 2. The play has an unusual hero, Medea, who is feminine, barbarian and “other,” who is subversive and transgresses many Greek boundaries, and who appropriates many of the characteristics of the Greek male hero of epic and earlier tragedy. 3. The play has an odd scene at the center when the Athenian hero Aigeus comes from nowhere, arrives on cue to give Medea sanctuary, and then disappears. Aristotle hated the scene, but I like it for its emphasis on children, for the respect and sympathy Aigeus shows Medea, and for its patriotic references to Athens. 4. The play has an odd ending, with Medea triumphant and no retribution or payback for her horrific acts of revenge. Where are the gods mentioned in the play? And where lies the Greek sense of just
