Medea - a Princess in Ancient Greek Mythology

The most intriguing part of a Greek tragedy is the involvement of a tragic hero, which consistently draws in a greater group of spectators and excites their feelings. A tragic hero is an honorable or imperial character whose pain is brought about by his own misinterpretation, and his experience consistently makes the audience feel dread and sympathy. Medea is a play composed by Euripides and represents the story of a unique tragic heroine. In this play, Medea is deceived by her husband, Jason, who chooses to wed the princess of Corinth. Subsequent to finding out about this dreadful affair, Medea is resolved to seek retribution: she kills the princess, the king, and even her children to hurt Jason. Medea's tragic imperfections, including rashness, an extremely passionate nature, and hubris, are reflected while the retribution happens; therefore making Medea a tragic heroine.

The carelessness of Medea's words and actions cause the outcast of her and her children. Towards the beginning of this play, it is not unusual to see Medea revile her enemies and her own delicate family. Her words, 'let them die, the accursed children of a hateful mother, with their father, and let the whole house disappear' (Euripides 17), clearly show her rushed temper as well as her anger towards the princess and her husband. Another model, which uncovers her carelessness, is that she wishes to see Jason and his new wife and the whole house savagely wrecked. These words eventually are overheard by Creon, ruler of Corinth. To guarantee the security of his daughter, he chooses to banish Medea and her children from his region. The banishment from Corinth triggers Medea's malicious arrangement and starts her defeat.

Medea's extremely passionate nature is another factor of her predicament. Her enthusiastic nature can be followed to a period before she lives in Corinth, where she causes numerous catastrophes and accumulates her transgressions. Her issue is demonstrated when she whines she has nowhere to go. She says, 'now where do I turn? To my homeland and my father's house, which I betrayed for you? Or to those poor daughters of Pelias? Wouldn't they receive me nicely in the house where I killed their father?' (30). Medea has her own method of reasoning for committing manslaughter: she begins to look all starry eyed at Jason and encourages him to get the Golden Fleece for his uncle. In order to escape effectively, Medea executes her brother, hacks the body, and dissipates the pieces into the sea. When they finally reach Iolcus, Pelias denies Jason's majesty, so Media deceives the two princesses to execute their father. Her passionate characteristic drives her to kill such a significant number of individuals unethically. Therefore, what she encounters afterward is a discipline to her crime. Yielding such a great amount for Jason, Medea is deceived, so her indignation is sensible. After she is allowed to remain for one more day, she is resolved to 'display the corpses of three of her enemies' (26). Medea and Jason profoundly despise him deeply, and her inordinate passionate nature drives her to revenge.

Hubris causes Medea to experience the ill effects of agony from loss of family and loneliness. She believes herself to be more scholarly than others, and her pride can be unobtrusively uncovered in numerous segments. For instance, she says, 'I won't have spoken to him or touched him with my hands, but he's become so foolish that, although he could have ruined my plans and cast me from this land, he allowed me to stay this day, in which I shall display the corpse of three of enemies' (26), Medea believes Creon to be inept, yet Creon lets her stay due to his compassion rather than foolishness. Additionally, she trusts her insight can wipe out her adversaries, and it appears she never utilizes her knowledge in a good way. At a certain point Medea says she has 'little knowledge, some are filled with jealousy, others think me secretive, and crazy' (36). Here Medea shows the reader that she is discriminated against other people because she is smart, which is without a doubt true. However, she certainly does not oust these prejudices when she utilizes her insight and knowledge to kill such a large number of individuals, and the majority of them are related. In addition to this, Medea carried out the crime of infanticide in order to hurt Jason, while her own clarification is to shield her children from 'more hostile hand' (55). It displays her pride because she would prefer to be corrupt than let her children be hurt by someone else.

Taking everything into account, Medea's excessive passionate nature, carelessness, and hubris makes her a tragic heroine. These individual characteristics that lead to her downfall additionally make her more relatable and impressive. Medea is the tragic hero, even though she no longer has heroism left in her at the end of the story. The audience can sympathize with Medea because there is no doubt that she is hurting and grieving. When she murders her children is when she finally lost everything she loved. Even though she became the heroine to Jason and his crew, she ended up becoming a tragic hero because now she has nothing.