Medea in Corinth III

Medea in Corinth III — Medea’s response to Creon

Medea’s second educational speech. Medea, lines 292-315

Not now for the first time, but again and again, Creon,

reputation has injured me and caused great harm.

A man who has full use of his faculties should not

educate his children in any special skills; 295

for apart from the reputation for being unproductive,

they amass the enmity of the citizens.

For bringing in clever innovations to the inept

you will seem profitless and hardly skilled at all;

being thought better in the city than those who think 300

they know something shrewd you will be irksome.

And I share in this fate myself:

For being skilled, I suffer the envy of some,

[to others unassuming and to others of the other sort]

and to others I am a rival; but I am not so very wise. 305

And then you are afraid of me. What harm can you suffer from me?

It is not in my power --don’t fear me, Creon--

to do wrong to the royal family.

What wrong have you done me? You married your

daughter to the man you chose for her. But my husband, 310

I do hate him. But you, I think, have acted with good sense in this.

And now I do not envy your good fortune.

Give your daughter in marriage, prosper; but let me live

in this land. Though wronged,

I will be silent, defeated by my betters. 315

The beginning of Creon’s scene (271-291)

Creon:

You there with the scowl on your face and raging at your husband,

Medea, I command you to go from this land,

taking with you your two children.

Do not delay. I am judge and jury of this sentence [brabeu/j "a judge who gives the final decision"]

and I will not go back home again 275

until I have cast you outside the borders of my country.

Medea:

Oh no! I am ruined, in my sorrow ... desperate!
My enemies are letting out the full sail
and there is no clear landing place from ruin.
But still, though I am in dire straits, I will ask 280
why are you banishing me for this country.

Creon:

I am afraid of you —no need to cover up my reasons—
lest you do some irreparable harm to my daughter.
Many factors contribute to my dread:
You are by nature clever and skilled in many evils, 285 [sofh/ kai\ kakw=n pollw=n i)/drij]
and you are grieved because you have been deprived of your husband.
I hear that you are making threats: this is the message they bring me,
against the father of the bride, the bridegroom, and the bride
to do something [to us]. I shall guard against these things before suffering harm.
It is better to suffer your hatred, madam, 290
than to be soft and regret it later. [cf. 316 le/geij a)kou=sai malqa/k"]

Politics of self-interest:

Old Servant: Everyone loves himself more than his neighbor. (85-7)

Creon: I love you not more than my own house. (327)

Creon: The quick-tempered woman, the same goes for a man, o)cu/qumoj ("quick to come to righteous wrath")

is easier to guard against than the silent clever one. (319-20)

kerdw=n a)/qikton tou=to bouleuth/rion

ai)doi=on, ocu/qumon, eu(do/ntwn u(/per

e)grhgoro\j frou/rhma gh=j kaqi/stamai.

Eumenides 704-6

This assemby I establish to be untouched

by gain, held in reverence, quick to punish wrong,

vigilant for those who sleep, a defense of the country.

Abstract

Why does Medea, the embodiment of diversity in the homogeneous world of the play, make this overtly political and rational speech in response to Creon’s sentence of exile, especially given the personal reasons for his punishment of her and her children? Many commentators find in this scene Euripides’ own voice, commenting on his fellow citizens’ reception of the Sophists (Verrall, Page, Elliot, for example) which may be true and it is intriguing that Euripides would choose as his mouthpiece an alien female outcast, characterized in the popular mind as chaotic, passionate, and dangerous. But are there other explanations? Yes. I think so.

The real horror of Medea’s situation is that Jason’s political, royal ambitions have put his family in danger. In her answer to Creon whose presence makes this a political scene, Medea tries to change the terms of the discussion. Her argument would be effective if Creon were not a tyrant, with his personal agenda. But she has other audiences, the Corinthian women, paradoxically political in spite of their gender, and the Athenian spectators, both of whom would be inclined to side with her in this debate. Hers is a good and basically democratic argument. When her attempt at the masculine art of political persuasion fails what other recourse does she have than to take just vengeance against the man who destroyed her family for political gain, and the man and his daughter who abetted him, thinking they could have a happy life at the expense of Medea and her children?