Euripedes & Classical "Feminism" part 1: Medea

Euripides 

In Classical Athens, there were three great tragedians: Euripedes, Sophocles and Aeschylus. Euripides was known to shock his male audiences by demonstrating sympathy to all groups of people, women included. His portrayal of women made him unique amongst his peers. How dare he make women seem strong and intelligent?!

Hippolytus and Medea, the plays that I shall be exploring (in two parts), both  have speeches delivered by the two female protagonists demonstrating elements of the stems of feminism, along with consistent referral to the lives of women throughout the plots, with a focus on the problem that exclusively befall on them. Today, I'll be exploring Euripides' Medea (James Morwood's translation). 

Medea About to Kill Her Children by Delacroix

In Euripedes time, women did not have high social stature or any power whatsoever within their societies. Traditionally, women were confined to typical roles, including a mother/housekeeper/mistress/etc. However, Euripedes portrays Medea as ahead of her time: she is not the stereotypical, virginal, "good" heroine, nor is she defenceless or weak. Instead, she proves herself powerful and indeed quite revolutionary. She is smart enough to manipulate the men in the play with great cunning: appealing to the men's passions and their inability to recognise dangerous consequences to then leave them in a helpless position, resulting in their tragic downfall. She completely defies the aforementioned expected confinements of women of her time, evoking feminine pride among the sisterhood. No heroine could possibly better express the destructive power of women and their vengeance.

The Women of Corinth speech, delivered by Medea and addressed to the chorus, is a famous extract from the play, and a well recognised piece of empowering literature.
"Of everything that is alive and has a mind, we woman are the most wretched creatures." (230-231) Here, Medea (Euripedes) begins to outline the absurd and quite heartbreaking realities of the life of a woman.

• "First of all, we have to buy a husband with a vast outlay of money - we have a master for our body. The latter is still more painful than the former." (231-233)
• Way back when, a woman would typically be betrothed to a man from the age of five years old and would probably be married at the age of fourteen. This was not the case in this play, as Medea was a barbarian (someone who isn't from the state), however she is aware of the traditional customs of Greek society. 
• When the betrothed young woman eventually gets married, her father donates a hefty dowry to his daughter's new oikos (household). It symbolises, essentially, a father selling his daughter to a  her new husband, who will replace her father's position as her kurios (head of the household). 
• "For divorce brings shame on a woman's reputation and we cannot refuse a husband his rights." (235-237)
• In Medea's situation, her husband, Jason, betrays her and abandons his wife and children to marry the king's daughter. A woman would struggle to get by following a divorce as a result of the shame that has befallen her. Medea, however, being the most cunning and vengeful babe in Greek mythology, makes sure she gets her revenge and makes it quite clear-cut that she will not tolerate Jason's behaviour. 
• "Men say of us that we live a life free from danger at home while they fight wars. How wrong they are! I would rather stand three times in the battle line than bear one child." (249-251)
• Quite possibly the most famous feminist sentiment in ancient literature. The "life free from danger" that the men assume women are granted is contradicted with the way they are treated in marriage and in society as a whole. 
• She stresses the point of a man's ability and freedom to get up and leave the house to see friends, business partners, etc is endless, but a woman is bound to face "one soul alone," facing this terrible, constant claustrophobia within the oikos.
• Her final comparison between fighting in a gruesome, relentless war and the natural process of giving birth would have been extremely challenging for an audience in Euripides' time, which we can only assume was done completely deliberately to invoke and arouse questioning on the matter of the position of women in society. 

In a time where slaves could attend a play at a theatre but a woman could not, it would not come as a surprise that Euripides was often questioned on his decisions regarding the way he wrote about women. However, his genuine concern that ended up being reflected in his tragedies were able to push for progress, and though it may have taken a couple of thousand years to get there (... still not quite there yet...), the role of women in society is no longer bound in the household.

Part 2 will be on Phaedra in Euripides' Hippolytus. 

Thanks for reading!