Date of Award

Spring 4-24-2024

Document Type

Honors Project

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Classics, Philosophy, and Religion

Department Chair or Program Director

Romero, Joseph

First Advisor

Joseph Romero

Second Advisor

Angela Pitts

Third Advisor

Liane Houghtalin

Major or Concentration

Classics

Abstract

When studying the plays of Euripides, scholars have often focused on the playwright’s social commentary while paying less attention to the relationship between the plays’ plots and the political environment in Greece at the time of their production. Furthermore, although many of Euripides’ plays have been identified as referencing contemporary political events, scholars have made no such assertions regarding the Medea. Through an examination of Euripides’ Medea and Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, this study seeks to address this gap in scholarship by taking into account the political context at the time which it was written and first produced. In support of this, it also investigates the plausibility of Euripides having access to current political information proposed to be referenced in the Medea as well as the potential for an audience to understand a secondary meaning encoded within the characters and plot. The paper proposes that Euripides either selected or invented specific plot points to increase the degree to which Jason paralleled Athens and Medea paralleled the weaker members of the Delian League with the effect that audiences would be reminded of recent geo-political events. This allowed Euripides to instruct his audience on the potential dangers of adopting a foreign policy standpoint that called for conquering as much territory as possible by offering a mythical example of how one man’s greed led to his ultimate destruction.

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