An empathetic look at the destructive power of female passion from the dramatist Aristotle called “the most tragic of poets.”
First performed in 431 BC, Medea is Euripides most powerful and well-known play. Cast aside by Jason when he pursues another woman, Medea seeks the ultimate revenge against her faithless husband by murdering his new wife along with the two people who matter to both Jason and Medea most: their children. In the hands of a Greek tragedian renowned for his eloquent and complex female characters, Medea shines a light on the full range of human emotion with keen psychological insight, bringing the ancient myth richly to life for the modern reader.
Euripides was a tragedian of classical Athens. He was born on Salamis Island around 480 BC to his mother, Cleito, and father, Mnesarchus, a retailer who lived in a village near Athens. He had two disastrous marriages, and both his wives—Melite and Choerine (the latter bearing him three sons)—were unfaithful. He became a recluse, making a home for himself in a cave on Salamis. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. He became, in the Hellenistic Age, a cornerstone of ancient literary education. The details of his death are uncertain.