Episode 19: Medeia’s Last Act

Join us for a discussion and exploration of the dynamic ancient tragedy, Euripides’ Medeia, which recounts Medeia’s reaction when her husband Jason dumps her to marry the king’s daughter. The play is full of tension: Jason has reasons for his play and hopes Medeia will buy into his decision to secure his family’s position in Corinth (remember, they’re exiles). Medeia’s wrath builds, but she taps into her cunning and expertise to engineer something of a perfect storm of revenge—with a horrifying twist at the end. Among the topics discussed are women’s roles in antiquity, the difficulty of being a foreigner (and non-Greek), and power dynamics in Greek myth.

As always, we present some visual aids for the episode. For this episode, we have two vases from antiquity. The first is a Greek vase that shows Medeia’s escape on a winged chariot that she got from her grandfather, Helios (the Sun-god), after having killed her two sons. The second is a beautiful wall painting in Pompeii where Medeia contemplates killing her children.

A beautiful red-figured vase depicting the end of Euripides’ Medea, which Medea, dressed in eastern garb, flees on a chariot given to her by her grandfather, Helios. Housed in the Cleveland Museum of Art—go visit their great interactive website to get crystal-clear view of the action!

A fantastic wall-painting in the Casa dei Dioscuri (House of the Dioscuri) in Pompeii, where Medea is at the crucial moment: will she or won’t she kill her kids by Jason to exact revenge? The boys’ paedagogus or caretaker is in the doorway looking on.

Credits:

Written and Directed: R. Scott Smith

Voice Actors: A.J. O’Neil and Julia Sommer

Sound Engineer: Samantha Coetzee

Music: Brooklyn Tea by Jared Sims