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Medea is a play by the ancient Greek tragic poet Euripides, which has a total of 13 performances. Although he won the third prize when it was staged in 431 BC, from ancient times to the present, it is recognized as one of the most moving Greek tragedies! Its influence on Roman literature was very pronounced. It is said that there were defeated Athenian soldiers in Sicily who regained their freedom because they could recite the lyrics of the play! The Spartans invaded Athens to demolish the ancient city, and because someone sang the entry song in the play, it touched the Spartans and saved the ancient city of Athens. Therefore, Plato called Onipides the most famous tragicist in the Republic! As for his influence on future generations, he was mentioned in the Divine Comedy, Milton praised him, Cornei wrote a Medea, and others such as Byron, Shelley, Racine, Goethe and Browning were all influenced by him!
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Medea was the princess of the barbaric kingdom of Korcas on the Black Coast, and Iasson was originally the prince of Iorkos, and after his uncle usurped the throne, he lied to him that he could take the throne until Coles retrieved the Golden Fleece. When Iasson went to Korcas, Medea fell in love with him fanatically, and did not hesitate to make enemies of his own family, betrayed his father, helped him kill his brother, stole his father's golden fleece, followed him to Greece, gave birth to two sons, and later he killed Pelias for helping Iason take revenge on his uncle Pelias for usurping the throne, and the couple was expelled from Iorcos. After drifting, they came to Collins, where they settled. Time passed, and Iasson, greedy for power and money, decided to abandon Medea and marry the daughter of Kreon, King of Corinth.
Medea is in tears, in extreme pain and anger due to abandonment, because Medea is already angry enough to hate her children! When I saw the two sons born to Iason, I was very unhappy! The nanny knows that Medea has a fierce temperament and will not easily accept defeat. Therefore, I was worried that Medea would set up a plan, do something terrible, or kill her own children, or kill the princess and the bridegroom, and cause even more trouble!
At this time, the nurse saw that Medea's two sons returned happily under the guidance of the nanny, and could not help but sigh that the child's heart was worry-free! I heard that Creon was going to deport Medea along with the child. The nanny will be suspicious, Medea is immediately furious when she sees the child return, the two children have just entered the house, and from the house, the curse of Medea's wish for the child to die with Iasson is heard!
The women of Coslyn heard Medea's angry sighs and cries. They came to ask the nanny, and they were sympathetic to Medea's plight. Then they heard Medea praying in the house that God would let Iason and the bride perish together! They think it is very common for their husbands to have new loves, and wives should not be angry, sad, and unbearable! They asked the nanny to get Medea out of the house and listen to their advice.
Medea came out and told the Women of Coslyn about her misfortune and was ashamed to have killed her brother! She complained of the misery of the fate of women, telling them that "in all things that are rational and spiritual." Women are the most unfortunate! They buy a husband with a lot of money (dowry), and the husband will become their master! Men are bored at home and can go out for a break, but women can only stay at home! Compared to those Coase cup women, she felt that as a gentile woman, far away from her homeland, alone, with no relatives, no friends, even more unfortunate! Medea asks the Women of Coslyn to find a way to avenge her and keep it a secret!
Creon arrives with his attendants and announces the expulsion of Medea and her two children, because he knows Medea is clever and knows magic, and he is afraid that Medea will retaliate and harm his daughter! Medea repeatedly asked Creon to allow their mother and son to stay, but they were all refused, and Medea decided to leave, but asked them for permission to postpone for a day and decided where to go. Creon agrees to Medea's request, and Medea decides to use the day to take revenge, and among all the methods, she decides to use the familiar method, that is, to kill them with poison! Doing so, she herself is safer. But before she can act, she must also find a place where she can get shelter.
Iasson came to show his concern for Medea, who scolded him shamelessly and exposed his ungratefulness: when Iason rowed from his hometown of Apingo to Korkas on the Black Coast in order to get the Golden Fleece, Medea fell in love with her at first sight, and when Iason followed Medea's father's instructions and drove a fire-breathing ox to plow the ground and sow dragon teeth that could become attacks on Iasson, it was Medea who saved him! Medea also stabbed the guard's python to death, helping him obtain the Golden Fleece! She fled her hometown, followed Iason to Greece, and then designed to avenge Iasson's father. Iason blamed Medea for having a bad temper and slandering the king. Deserve to be expelled! Fearing that Medea and his son would fall into poverty after their banishment, he was willing to help them, and Iasson defended himself, believing that Medea had exaggerated the favors she had given him, that Medea had helped him driven by the god of love, and that he himself had allowed Medea to come to Greece, live a civilized life, make a name among the Greeks, and fully repay Medea's help. As for him saying that he married the princess, that was the smartest way to do it, and he wasn't disgusted with Medea, he wasn't in love with the bride, and he didn't want to have more sons! Rather, as an exile, he wants to get out of poverty, for Medea and his son, and hopes that his existing son will use his future born son to rely on! Meiya accuses Iasson of duplicity and contemptuous of Iasson's offer of financial help. Iason had to leave.
The king of Athens, Egus, because he was childless, went to the ancient temple of Apollo, asked for divine advice, and passed by Coslin on the way back, Medea told him about Aunt E's treachery and his own encounter with exile, and begged Egus to accept her, and she must use her own spells to make Egus have a son! Egus sympathized with Medea's situation. Swear that after Medea arrives in his country, he will do his best to help and protect her!
Medea decided to take revenge, Medea sent a nanny to invite Iason, pretended to confess to Iason, praised her marriage, said that she decided to leave, but hoped that Iasson asked the king and princess to keep the two children, in order to ask the princess to intercede for the children, she wanted their children to send a delicate robe and a golden crown left by their ancestors to the princess, she said that she was willing to redeem her two sons at the cost of her life to not be exiled! Iason accepts Medea's request, and Medea warns her son that the gift must be accepted by the bride herself.
The nanny led the two children back after delivering the gifts, and the princess accepted the gifts, very happy, and did not exile the two children anymore! Medea couldn't help but sigh a long time after hearing this! Her heart was full of pain and contradictions! She wanted to kill the child, but she couldn't bear it, and if she didn't kill the child, she was afraid that the child would be insulted by the enemy!
The messenger hurriedly came and advised Medea to flee quickly! It turned out that after the child left, the princess put on a colorful robe and put on a beautiful golden crown, very happy, and suddenly the golden crown on her head burst into flames, and the robe devoured her skin, and she struggled madly, but was still burned to death by the flames! The king heard the news and ran to hold his daughter's body, crying out in sorrow, at this time he himself was stuck in the robe and could not get out, and finally the muscles and bones were separated, and he died horribly! Medea was overjoyed to know that she had taken revenge on the princess and the king!
Medea finally decides to kill her children and not let them die at the hands of more cruel people, and she laments that she is such a miserable woman! Medea went into the house and killed her two children!
At this time, Iason hurriedly came, and he knew that Medea had killed the king and the princess, and the crime was extremely evil, and it was difficult to escape punishment! He wanted to save the children so that they would not be retaliated against by the king's relatives for their mother's crimes! But what I saw was that the child had been killed by the mother!
Medea appears in the air with the bodies of her two children in a dragon cart sent by her grandfather Helios, and Iason curses Medea for being fierce and kills her own child! Medea takes comfort from the pain of her enemies and curses Iason for not dying! Iason begged Medea to leave the child's body behind and let him bury his son's body! Medea said to take them to the temple of Hera on the promontory and bury them with his own hands, lest the enemy insult them and dig up their graves! Iasson failed to do so, in pain, crying! Medea told him that killing her son was to break his heart, and the dragon car flew away.
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In Euripides's day, wives were merely tools for giving birth to legal children! Euripides took women on stage and focused on portraying their psychological feelings, which was an important achievement of his! In retaliation, Medea was willing to endure appalling suffering, and she also wanted to kill her two sons with her own hands, so that her ungrateful husband was punished and consciously committed a crime, resulting in a shocking tragedy! Since Eurybides created such a female image, we have also seen a familiar character in literary and artistic works, such as "Daming Palace Words" according to various historical materials to describe Wu Zetian, in order to achieve the purpose of competing for favors and seizing the throne, he personally killed his daughter and forced his son to die, the purpose is despicable, the means are cruel!