Medea in Corinth II: Politics of the choral odes
Politics in ancient Athens, as we all know, belonged to men. And yet the Medea, though about a woman among women and a woman’s power, is recognized as one of Euripides’ most political plays. William Arrowsmith (1963:47), for example, called it "a comprehensive critique of the quality and state of contemporary culture." More recently, Rainer Friedrich (1993) refers to the play as "Euripides’ dramatization of the crisis of the polis." In Creon’s Corinth there is no public debate, no chorus of elders, no chance for the use of reason. Creon himself is king, herald, and judge. In this vacuum of civic life the chorus of Corinthian women becomes the voice of the citizen body raised in protest against injustice and the domination of bad men.
The parodos and first three formal choral odes all provide social commentary:
po/lij-centered than their king, to whom his child was more than his country. Without a po/lij one has no fi/loi.Parodos: Nurse, chorus, Medea, sing about justice (157), tyranny (119ff), democracy (122-3).
First Stasimon: Women will get their due. The old songs, because they are men’s songs, and men are liars, are false. The universe is in revolt. It may take some time for it to reach a balance
Second Stasimon: Love is best in moderation; in excess it does not lead to virtue. The chorus is more
Third Stasimon: Athens, where it is always spring looks like a perfect society from the outside.
Nationalistic paeans may instill a proud complacency, but they have another mission: to inspire the citizens to live up to their myths and to bring patriotic tears over the inanition of their ideals.By the end of the play the political element is nearly eclipsed by religious awe and human horror.