The princess and the prince fell in love, and after many difficulties and tribulations, they lived happily together forever... This is Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, and the opposite of it is the famous love tragedy "Medea" in ancient Greece.
Medea is the most famous work of the ancient Greek tragedy master Euripides.
In ancient Greek mythology, there was a country called Iorkas, and Prince Iasson, who was supposed to inherit the throne, was bullied and betrayed by his uncle Perias, and only by retrieving the legendary "Golden Fleece" from the distant country of Korcas could he force the cunning uncle Zen to take the throne.
Thus began a tragedy of love.
Medea
When Iasson and his teammates finally arrived in the country of Korcas after much hardship, the beautiful princess and witch Medea fell in love with him at first sight.
Unsurprisingly, Iasson's appeal was rejected by the king of Korkas, and he threw out one problem after another to make it difficult for Iasson.
With Medea's help, Iason kills the dragon guarding the Golden Fleece
However, love is like a tornado that sweeps through the young princess Medea, causing her to do something to deceive her father, secretly succeeding in helping Iason get the Golden Fleece guarded by the dragon.
She also left her homeland without hesitation and followed Iason away from home.
Medea killed her brother
In order to get rid of the trailing pursuing soldiers, Medea took her own brother hostage and killed him, scattering the corpses on the sea so that the angry king would not have time to lead an army to pursue them.
Upon his return to Iorkas, Iasson did not succeed in taking the throne, so Medea used a spell to kill Iasson's uncle Perias, causing the couple to be expelled and exiled.
They fled to Corinth with their two sons.
Medea originally thought that her wholehearted dedication could be exchanged for the love of her husband's life, but at this time, Iasson had completely lost the throne and was no longer the ambitious and ambitious young hero he had been.
Iasson began to covet wealth and affection, and promised the king of Collins to be his son-in-law.
Medea formulating poison
As Iasson racked her brains to get rid of Medea, Medea learned of her betrayal and devised a poisonous and gorgeous crown to Princess Collins.
As she expected, the princess who tried on new clothes and the king who heard the cry for help and dared to come to her rescue both died under her poisonous plan.
But their deaths could not extinguish the vengeful anger in Medea's heart, and she stabbed her two sons in front of Iasson, making Iason worse off than dead.
At the end of the story, Medea flees to Athens in a carriage, and Iasson regrets it and chooses to commit suicide.
It's a tragedy about love and marriage.
In pursuit of love, Medea betrayed her father and killed her brother.
On the one hand, the betrayal of the country and her affection made her heart condemned by conscience; on the other hand, she sacrificed her hope in exchange for Iasson's single-minded love, and finally completely failed, which completely destroyed all Medea's beliefs.
The disillusionment of love and marriage prompted Medea to take revenge, even killing her own children with her own hands, and using innocent blood to pay tribute to the pain of love.
Medea is a complex artistic figure, she is brave and bold, dares to love and dare to hate, but her fierce means of revenge also explain her coldness and sin.
The story of Medea allows us to see the power of love, but also let us see the despair of love.
A person's fate can never escape the limitations of the society in which she lives.
Ancient Greece was a slave society of male superiority and inferiority, and although upper-class women did enjoy more freedom and power, it is undeniable that their status was still inferior and they had to rely on men to survive.
Although "Medea" portrays the misfortunes of women in the ancient Greek period, as well as the protagonist's crazy revenge psychology after the broken vows and the disappearance of love.
However, how to avoid the continuation of tragedy is the greatest inspiration of Medea for future generations.
First of all, "independent women" can not be just a slogan, a truly independent woman will not tie her entire life to the chariot of "love"; a truly independent woman will not sacrifice her children after the betrayal of love, in order to seek temporary revenge.
Secondly, although love is sweet, people cannot live forever in the illusion of momentary confusion.
Plato cites a famous "cave metaphor" in the Republic to illustrate the inherent limitations of human cognition.
He imagined a group of people who were chained to a deep cave as soon as they were born, and they couldn't see what was happening outside the cave, thinking that the world was like all around them, with only darkness.
It wasn't until one prisoner broke free of his chains and walked out of the cave that he saw the real world alive, but when he described the wonderful world outside to his still locked companion, they didn't believe it at all, thinking he was talking nonsense.
Then the locked-in people came to a consensus: whoever let them out, they would all refuse.
And those who are deeply involved in one-sided love until they lose their minds are undoubtedly those who are locked in caves, and the only thing that awaits them is boundless loss and darkness.
Each of us may have dreams of beautiful love.
For some people, real life is always so cruel, forcing them to give in repeatedly, unable to maintain full sobriety and sanity in ideals, love, marriage, and sometimes knowing that what is in front of them is an illusion of the moon in the mirror of the water, but they do not want to wake up.
But blindly escaping can not get the favor of the goddess of luck, only with the courage to face the unknown and darkness, can you truly control your own destiny.
Hopefully, we all don't become the ones who don't want to wake up and willingly fall into darkness.
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