Medea Rough Draft

When people think about Ancient Greek Literature, they tend to think about the odd tragedies that were written throughout their time. Much like the play of Medea, which is considered an taboo Greek tragedy to this day within our modern society. Medea is play mostly fixated on betrayal and the plot of what she thought would be adequate justice for the betrayal she endured from Jason, her husband. Betrayal is a funny subject when discussing it, because many people experience this distrust at least once in their lives. When analyzing it, Brian Lush discusses the psyche of a woman who is scorned, and how she feels the proper reaction to betrayal is. The reaction of an individual is key on how the betrayal is interpreted. Someone with the same mindset as Medea could experience betrayal and let vengeance consume them like she did throughout the play, or one can experience betrayal and take it as a learning experience and move on with their lives for the better. This play does not experience the ladder situation. Medea is an intimate, yet timely look at the act of betrayal and how a scorned woman reacts to it, while shattering the stereotypes that women held through the ra of Ancient Greek times.

Medea is a classic Ancient Greek tragedy in which the mother of two children, becomes a somewhat single parent when her husband leaves her to marry the daughter of Creon in order to gain power and land. This was originally seen as a play for gain of power for himself and his family, but then Medea saw it as a betrayal, and became ridden with the thought of how to seek the ultimate revenge so that Jason would suffer. Medea herself was outcast in the land she resided prior due to her own betrayal of her family, but was salvaged the banishment when she became wedd to Jason, and they bore two children together. Once Jason announced to Medea that he would be living her to travel to another land to marry the daughter of the King Creon to gain multiple advancements in his future, Medea took that as betrayal and started to lose her mind in grief over it. This ultimate betrayal lead Medea going through extreme mood swings, as well as traveling to a foreign land to seek Jason and attempt revenge. When she finally faced Jason, she realized that he had no remorse for what he had done, but still had a piece of his heart reserved for his children. This led to her internal struggle as a mother, but also as a woman ho wanted to set an example for all the other women who had felt scorned by their loved ones. She contemplated arranging the deaths of her own children to spite her own husband at the time. This shows how a woman is capable of anything, and should not be looked down upon simply because she is a woman. The play ends with the final decision of Medea taking the final step to kill her only two children in order to make sure Jason endures the most extreme amount of pain he could feel in life in order for her version of justice and revenge.

The play starts off with Jason venturing off to find the daughter of Creon to marry her and gain more power. This leaves Medea feeling upset and betrayed, and although she takes to her bed for awhile, she the lets the grief of the betrayal start to fester, and starts to turn her sights to the idea of revenge. "You are lucky, old watchdog of Jason's boys. I envy you, you do not see her. This evil is not declining, it is just at its dawn, I dread the lion-eyed glare of its noon." (Medea, 6) This is the scene where the nurse is describing the fury that Medea is feeling by her betrayal and explaining that her vengeance is only at its lowest peak it what she will find in revenge as a scorned woman. This was a follow up to Jason feeling like he had fallen out of love with Medea and yearned for more out of s marriage, therefore perusing his relationship with the daughter of Creon. "Now all is changed; all is black hatred. For Jason has turned from her; he calls the old bond a barbarian mating, not a Greek marriage; he has cast her off." (Medea, 4) This is a prime example of a marriage and mating gone wrong, and slowly seeing its demise, before Jason decides to flee to another marriage. Medea takes to her bed following this betrayal, and eventually merged consumed with the thought of revenge, and makes a speech plotting her voyage to make sure that she lives out the promise to herself.

Jeffers, Robinson. Medea. New York, 1946.

The Odessy Hospitality to Stranger s

There seems to be some reoccurring themes throughout Ancient Greek literature, one of them being hospitality to strangers. The Odessy gives us many different examples of this concept throughout the different books. Throughout his journey Odyseuss was presented with many forms of hospitality from strangers in different lands. "Since you have come to our country, you shall not lack clothing, nor anything needed by a sore-tried suppliant who presents himself. I will show you where the city is." (Homer, 90) This was said by Princess Nausicca, after Odyseuss found himself on the land of the Phaeacians. 

There is another journey that Odyseuss takes that makes us take a further look into hospitality is his relationship he developed with Calypso. " With wine that ran black, another large one With water, and tucked into a duffel A generous supply of hearty provisions." (Homer, 77) The relationship he formed with Calypso was a close one, with her caring for Odyseuss and making sure he was provided with everything needed while staying with her from food, to shelter, to clothing, and supplies. 

Both of these examples relate directly to my last journal entry in that I proceeded to state that hospitality to strangers is something of importance, and that we should strive to remain hospitable when meeting new people. All these individuals who helped Odyseuss, did it in order to maintain good relations with him, and try to alieviate the burdens he would encounter during his journey. This relates back to never fully knowing what someone is going through, and how by showing them the slightest bit of hospitality can go a long way.

Gilgamesh and Nature vs. Civilization

The Epic of Gilgamesh gives a great testimony to what i previous pointed out in my journal entry of nature vs. civilization. I pointed out with many examples from our modern day society that nature seems to always win in the end. Gilgamesh and Enkidu start out as enemies, then decide to join forces and come up with a scheme that could deliver serious consquences. Endiku was man of nature, as when he was first found, "he was living amongst the animals, suckling at their breast, grazing in the meadows, and drinking the water at their places." He was clearly a man of the wild, and was then brought into shelter by  his current civilization of the time.

Throughout this epic, Gilgamesh finds the fact that Endiku was originally a person at one with nature and the animals as opposed to civilization that he would be the appropriate accomplice to carry out the plan he had. "Gilgamesh and Enkidu decide to steal trees from a distant cedar forest forbidden to mortals. A terrifying demon named Humbaba, the devoted servant of Enlil, the god of earth, wind, and air, guards it." They decide to take these trees and create a gate out of them, as well as using the leftovers for rafts and other various things. This leads to my point in my journal entry where I spoke about how we as man manipulate the earth around us to advance as a civilization, but eventually nature comes back with a vengeance and eventually takes over with ruling all. During the Epic of Gilgamesh, we saw that there was multiple consequences to the two stealing the trees from this forest. The riches that Gilgamesh and Endiku fashioned from the forbidden trees caused Ishtar to fall for Gilamesh and when he rejected her her father sent down "the bull of heaven" from the sky and with it, it brought seven years of famine. This is just one example out of The Epic of Gilgamesh that shows that nature is a force to be reckoned with, and that a,though we may try to manipulate it to our favor in society, eventually it prevails s the stronger of the two.