In the play they serve as a foil to the action, taking the news and digesting it as we do the same, casting it into a different light or reviewing it. I struggle to see how the chorus fit in here, if they were ladies of Corinth, would they really have stood by when Medea expands on her plot against the bride and her father? It feels unlikely, so I'm uncertain of who they are.

He allows her one day to leave - and calls himself a fool for allowing her the time - how right he is proven. When the play opens, Jason's marriage to Creon's daughter (who, I think, goes unnamed throughout, which is interesting) has been planned and Creon banishes Medea, for fear that she may do him or his daughter harm. She faces Jason, Creon (the king of Corinth) and Aegeus (King of Athens) and manages to shock the first 2 severely. The play is dominated by her, with her presence on stage for the majority of the play. Medea, unsurprisingly, doesn't see it that way. But it would make little to no sense without understanding how she came to be in Corinth and why Jason, her husband in all but the legal sense, feels that he can up and marry someone else. Medea has history here, we come in at the end of her story, this is set in just a few hours. Perfect in and out of the classroom as well as for theatrical performance, this faithful translation succeeds like no other'-Provided by publisher. Stallings examines the complex and multifaceted Medea in patriarchal ancient Greece. An introduction by classicist and poet A. In this stunning translation, poet Charles Martin captures the rhythms of Euripides's original text through contemporary rhyme and meter that speaks directly to modern readers. From the very beginning of the play we are drawn into a world 'torn asunder by blind, disruptive forces, which affords no consolation, no compassion for suffering.' At its center is Medea herself, a character who refuses definition: is she a hero, a witch, a psychopath, a goddess? All that can be said for certain is that she is a woman who has loved, has suffered, and will stop at nothing for vengeance. A barbarian woman brought to Corinth and there abandoned by her Greek husband, Medea seeks vengeance on Jason, and is willing to strike out against his new wife and family-even slaughtering the sons she has born him. 'The Medea of Euripides is one of the greatest of all Greek tragedies, and arguably the one that has the most significance for us today.

Medea modern translation