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English 240: Ancient Literature Questions on Euripides' Medea Alfred J. Drake. Hours: Classroom, by Appt. | ajdrake@ajdrake.com 1. How does Medea justify killing her own sons--what does she say her motives are? Is she consistent in this regard? 2. How do the chorus, the King, and Jason regard Medea before she kills her two sons? What assumptions about gender and "Greekness" might be said to inform their statements? 3. In the myth cycles, Jason is a hero. How does Euripides handle this figure from Greek legend? 4. Euripides is often called an ironist because he structures his plots in unusual ways. Find an instance or two where the choices he makes seem contrary to ordinary expectations for plot development or character presentation. 5. How does Euripides compare with Aeschylus or Sophocles with respect to the balance between character presentation and plot development? 6. How does Euripides compares with Aeschylus or Sophocles with regard to the relationship between the human and the divine? How important are myth and the gods in Euripides' dramatic universe or "cosmos"? 7. Consider Aristotle's later theory of tragedy, in which a noble character commits an "error" and that character's downfall generates some degree of empathy (pity and fear) on the audience's part, with the end result being "catharsis" (emotional purification and/or clarification) for the spectators. Does Medea fit this pattern, or would you describe its probable effect differently?
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