Euripides' Medea: Feminine and Masculine Spaces

I first came across Euripides’ Medea during A-Level where we studied the following calyx krater:

(Image from Cleaveland Museum of Art)

This c. 400 BCE red-figure calyx krater depicts Medea’s escape at the end of the play and significantly this is the first play that uses a crane, a mêchanê, in tragedy, which was in 431 BCE (Hancock-Jones, Renshaw, Swift 18). This calyx krater shows Medea in the center on a chariot outlined by the sun and this reference to the sun probably pays tribute to her grandfather, the Sun. This calyx krater also depicts the use of the wheel-platform, known as the Ekkyklema, which has been dressed as an altar where her two sons lie dead, murdered by Medea which evokes the theme of suffering. Furthermore, suffering is further evoked by the nurse on the right hand side of the scene whose hands are raised to indicate mourning (Hancock-Jones, Renshaw, Swift 19).

I started off this piece by examining this calyx-krater as it embodies both female and male characteristics. For example, Medea’s chariot is drawn by dragons or “two hideous winged female creatures, perhaps Furies” (Hancock-Jones, Renshaw, Swift 19). Consequently, I think it can be interpreted that the monstrous beasts embody both feminine and masculine characteristics and therefore its interesting the artist chose to do this to emphasize the significance of femininity within the play. Additionally, this combination of masculinity and femininity is further evoked by Edith Hall who states Medea “fundamentally repudiates the gender role assigned to her as a woman in fifth-century Greece” (xvii).

Hall’s statement is first embodied in Medea’s first monologue, where Medea comments on both men and women’s place and perspectives in society. For example, Medea notes the burden of women in marriage by stating the burden of women in ways such as “we have to buy a husband” and “we have to take a master for our body” (7). Consequently, Medea’s choice of phrasing is ironic, as it immediately places her outside the feminine norm by noticing women’s place in society. This disruption of Medea’s femininity is further evoked by Hall who comments that this speech of Medea’s “marks her first exit from the ‘feminine’ sphere of the house” (xvii). Even though Medea attempts to display her unity with women by repeatedly using the pronoun “we” she simultaneously isolates herself by repeatedly distinguishing herself from women by repeatedly using the first person pronoun “I” (7).

In contrast to Medea’s opinion on women’s constrained position in society, men are free to escape the prison of marriage that Medea has constructed in her narrative. Medea’s comments “when he has had enough of life at home” (7), men are able to leave constricted spaces for open ones, unlike women. Consequently, Medea’s monologue creates a series of binary opposites: men and women, prison and liberty, open and close spaces. It is Medea’s commentary that allows her to defy and cross over these binary opposites in order to survive. Furthermore, Hall’s comment Medea’s ability to utilize “in one psyche the ‘feminine’ qualities of compassion and maternal love with the ‘masculine’ heroic values of honour, status, and revenge” (xvii) which further evokes the idea Medea is very much unlike both men and women in this play.

Works Cited

Euripides, Medea. Translated by James Morwood, OUP Oxford, 2008.

Hall, Edith. Introduction. Medea and Other Plays, Translated by James Morwood, OUP Oxford, 2008.

Hancock-Jones, Robert, Renshaw, James, Swift, Laura. Greek Theatre and Imperial Image, Bloomsbury, Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.