Medea
1703
- dionysus (greek deity)
- greek drama
- greek language
- readers
- translations into english
- medea (greek mythology)
- great_books_of_the_western_world
- drama
- pentheus (greek mythology)
- bacchantes
The story
"Medea has been betrayed. Her husband, Jason, has left her for a younger woman. He has forgotten all the promises he made and is even prepared to abandon their two sons. But Medea is not a woman to accept such disrespect passively. Strongwilled and fiercely intelligent, she turns her formidable energies to working out the greatest, and most horrifying, revenge possible." "Euripides' devastating tragedy is shockingly modern in the sharp psychological exploration of the characters and the gripping interactions between them. Award-winning poet Robin Robertson has captured both the vitality of Euripides' drama and the beauty of his phrasing, reinvigorating this masterpiece for the twenty-first century."--BOOK JACKET.
What it’s like
Spare, stark verse in a single bare setting: a house front in Corinth, a chorus of women murmuring their unease, and a central figure whose fury builds in long, pressed speeches. Read it as one dim afternoon of sustained tension rather than a page-turner. Its textures are cold stone, sour grief and sharp argument, with little that soothes. The rhythm is ritual, moving between incantatory chorus and rapid, cutting exchanges. The emotional register is harrowing and claustrophobic, a study of wounded pride hardening into resolve, and the arc of its central woman, from humiliation to a terrible, deliberate control, is the heart of it. Violence is severe but mostly reported or implied rather than staged in close detail: a poisoned gift and its agonising aftermath are described vividly, and the murder of children is central and unbearably sad. This is not gentle reading, and dread rather than gore carries its weight. It suits readers who want classical tragedy in clean, muscular English, particularly on a quiet evening when they are prepared to sit with something bleak.
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