6. Medea and Women

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, Lucy talks about the theme of women in Medea. Beginning with the role of women in 5th Century Athens, she considers what the (predominantly male) audience of Euripides' play would have thought of the character and actions of Medea herself. Can Euripides be thought of as a feminist?

Course

In this module, we explore Euripides' Medea, a tragedy in which a Medea kills her own children to get back at Jason, who has left her for another woman. The course begins by looking at the myth of Medea and what the Athenian audience might have known about the character of Medea before Euripides' version. The course also looks at key themes in the Medea, including revenge, rhetoric, women, and the gods, as well as tackling the difficult issue of the role of Chorus.

Lecturer

Lucy Jackson is Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University. Her research interests include Greek drama in the classical period, particularly Greek tragedy and Greek choral performance. Her most recent book is The Chorus of Drama in the Fourth Century BCE (Oxford, 2019).