The Chorus In Medea

In The Republic, Socrates idealized the perfect city. One of the aspects that he deliberated on was the raising of children and family structure. The conclusion reached by Socrates is that no parent will know his own offspring or any child his parents (457 d). It was Socrate's belief that the best atmosphere would be created in a communal upbringing of the city's children. In the same sense, he believed that they should take every precaution to insure that no mother knows her own child (460 c). Not even the mother, the traditional child-rearer, would be permitted to know or have a say in the lives of her own children, but

Euripides was interested in how culture affected things. He was not the typical writer and his characters confirm this. In Medea, Euripides wanted his characters to participate in a culture that was under extreme stress, perhaps the same stress that his culture was experiencing. He exhibited this by writing as if his characters were transplanted into a different culture, unique from their own, as if to use the unfamiliarity as psychological strain. Therefore the strain would immortalize or distort them. The way in which Medea meditates the murder of her children is much admired, however Euripides' interest is in the collapse or derangement of culture that makes the murder both possible and necessary (Arrowsmith 357).

The Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium Restoration project, it is one restoration project of many in the state of North Carolina that make up the North Carolina coastal restoration project responsible for the restoration of the 301 miles that make up the North Carolina coastlines. I have chosen this particular project because it is close to me; I worked an internship for my high school senior research project at the Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores and worked closely with the rehabilitation of the endangered Loggerhead sea turtle.This ecosystem needed to be restored because of the effects of the Hurricane Irene in 2011, and the Longshore current. This current is responsible for eroding the coastline, moving north to south in a quick process that migrates inlets

Exercise is not something that I do often, I think about it but don’t actually do it. I work out in my room or the gym about four times a month, meaning I only exercise 12 weeks out of the 52 week year. The lack of exercise is a key factor in the approach taken in the paper. After taking this class it has been reiterated how important exercise is in a healthy lifestyle. In high school I was very active but when I got to college my motivation slowed down tremendously. My sophomore year of college was the best year in terms of exercise, I had a steady gym schedule and I ate fairly well for a college student on a meal plan. Exercise is said to bring positive feelings of well-being and lowers anxiety and depression. I tend to handle stress

By saying this Oedipus is putting his people first by noticing his people were in pain and suffering from the plague,Oedipus is talking to his city, “my poor children no one suffers more than I do”(1). When he says “my poor children” he thinks the people of Thebes as family to him. “ no one suffers more than I do”(2) he takes on their pain as his own. Oedipus also shows how much his city means to him. “I mourn for their lives more than I do my own”(2). Oedipus benefits his people he feels the grief and sadness they are going through. He makes it a priority to find out what caused the illness and he does whatever it takes to do so. The plague is one of the many situations where Oedipus puts his people first.

For the women in ancient Greece, justice was far from reach. In the Greek society, men were allowed to abandon their wives in order to marry younger ones and Medea was not invulnerable to this fate. Despite all of her devoutness to her husband, he relinquished her for someone new. “Oh how unhappy I am, how wretched my sufferings. Oh woe is me. I wish I could die”, Medea cried out at the horrendous news (page 3, line 9). Euripides created a tragedy that many women during the ancient Greek time could relate to.

Once he began manipulating Medea, this made him realize, that he can manipulate anyone he chooses to. After he had captured the Golden Fleece, he abandoned Medea and married the princess of Corinth hoping to stable his wealth and gain more power. He, in turn, manipulated the royal family only to have the consistent power he needed and desired. This had then begun to escalate. Jason is now displaying a pattern of his manipulation. As Jason begins to free himself from his “evil” ex-wife, Jason manipulates the past into a lie and much bigger problem from his side of the story. His dishonesty makes his side of the story more believable and by doing so, his manipulation skills had become more deceivable. Jason is in denial of the many things Medea had done for him and when he told his story, he used omission in order to deceive his listeners. Jason then says, “Dark threats cast out against the majesties/ of Corinth, count as veriest gain thy path of exile.” (27). He then blames Medea and having Creon ban her from Corinth.

In section 18 of the Poetics Aristotle criticizes Euripides for not allowing "the chorus to be one of the actors and to be a part of the whole and to share in the dramatic action, . . . as in Sophocles." Aristotle may be thinking of the embolima of Euripides' later plays (satirized also by Aristophanes), but he is certainly wrong about the Medea. Its choral odes are not only all intimately related to the action but are also essential for the meaning of the play, particularly because here, as elsewhere (e.g. Hecuba), Euripides forces us reevaluate his main protagonist in midstream and uses the chorus (in part) to indicate that change.

Society establishes a set of expectations by which males and females are expected to conduct themselves. For example, a mother is expected to nurture her child, stay at home to take care of her children, be patient, be kind, love unconditionally and to never get angry. If a mother does not live up to these expectations established by society, then that mother is deemed a “bad mother.” Since a mother gives birth to her children and nurtures them, a mother who kills her children is considered to be unredeemably bad. Medea, in the play of the same name, kills her two sons and by societal standards, she would be deemed a bad mother. Contrary to society’s expectations of mothers, I will argue that Medea is not a bad mother. I will do this by proving that: Medea defies the social conventions of motherhood in three ways; she kills her children in order to protect them; and, that she rebels against her husband’s control and male domination by depriving him of his “immortality” by killing his sons and ending his bloodline.

In Medea, Euripides uses irony to convey the fact that the female protagonist is strong in the androcentric society and the male protagonist is weak. In the article “Male Medea,” Nancy Rabinowitz describes the protagonist as “the transgressive woman, [or man] inside the woman's body, and her story gives the lie to the gender story--of the woman as victim” (16). Medea, the female protagonist, has the power to control and manipulate any character in the play. This is proven when the Tutor says “Madam, your sons do not have to go into exile; the royal bride gladly took the gifts in her hands; there’s peace now, with her and the children” (1001-3). This represents irony because the sons do not go into exile, but are instead killed by their masculine,

Is the killing of anyone ever justified? Is the life of one individual more important than another? In Euripides, Medea, Medea kills the princess of Corinth, the king of Corinth, Creon, as well as her own children. Are her actions the actions of an insane, distraught person or those of wise, foreign, barbaric woman trying to protect her children? Through the story of Medea, Medea justifies the killing of others while several other characters portray the injustice of her killings. Can a person show a justifiable reason to the killing of others or is the killing of others justified under certain circumstances?

What did you contribute to the class? Specifically, what did you do? How did you make Medea a better place for all the students here?

Amongst Euripides' most famous plays, Medea went against the audience's expectations at his time. Indeed, the main character of the play is Medea, a strong independent female who neglected moral and . She was therefore in all ways different to how women were perceived in Ancient Greece. This essay will explore how Euripides' controversial characters demonstrate that his views were ahead of his time.

At first she decides to spare her children since she didn’t want to see them die and couldn’t bear the thought of having to kill them. A quote from Medea is “Oh my heart, don’t don’t do it! Oh miserable heart. Let them be. Spare your children!”(Euripides 49 1057-1058). What the previous quote is saying in Medea would like to spare her children from death since they didn’t do anything wrong. What it is also saying is that her heart is miserable most likely meaning that she is sad and depressed. When she says “spare your children” she is telling herself don’t kill your children they don’t deserve to have to die just because of what your husband has done to her. What that all proves is that she really did not want to have to kill her kids. Once King Creon and the princess pass she finally decides that she must kill her two sons. A quote from Medea supporting why she had to kill her children is “For they must die In any case; and since they must, then I who gave birth will kill them” (Euripides 55 1237-1239). What the quote is saying is no matter what her kids will die. What it is also saying is that she is going to kill them. When Medea says “I who gave birth to them will kill them” she is saying that since she gave birth to her sons she should be able to see them die. What all of that proves is even though she might not want to kill them they will die no matter what and she should be able to see them die which is why she kills them herself. What both of those quotes prove is even though she kills them it was necessary since they would kill them to punish them for the crimes against the king and princess that they helped commit even though they didn’t know it would kill the

As the famous Greek playwright Euripides once said: “Stronger than lover's love is lover's hate. Incurable, in each, the wounds they make.” Such ideas are portrayed in one of him most famous plays, Medea. This play is a fascinating classic centered on the Greek goddess Medea. Despite its recent fame, during his time, Euripides was unpopular since he used what would be considered a ‘modern’ view where he would focus on women, slaves and persons from the lower classes. In the play, Medea commits filicide, which initially appears extremely horrendous, but as the audience is guided through the play, they develop sympathy towards Medea. In order to achieve this empathy and enhance the understanding of Medea’s pride and ideals, Euripides