Page 13 - GALIET INFINITE MEDEA: Euripides IV

To.
Sourvinou-Inwood, in Medea at a Shifting Distance: Images and Euripidean Tragedy,7 concludes that Medea, distanced in narrative and strongly distanced in iconography, ultimately explores woman as the barbarian, multifaceted ‘other:’ bad woman.8
Not soon after:
The Medea of one infinite myth 3⁄4 of one infinite day.
Mythical traces. In Hesiod, Medea is niece of Circe, ‘the sorceress;’ daughter of King Aeetes of Aia and of Eidya, ‘the knowing one’; granddaughter of Helios, ‘the all-seeing one.’ In Diodorus, Medea is sister of Circe, daughter of triple Hecate and also step-niece of Phaeton. In Hesiod’s Theogony (992- 1002), Medea is one of the goddesses who sleep with mortal men.9 She assists Jason in completing wicked Pelias’ golden- fleece ordeals. She departs with Jason from Aia to Iolcus, giving birth to Medeios. In the Cypselus-chest, Medea and Jason marry in Aphrodite’s presence. In Carmen Naupacticum, Medea is ambushed by Jason while Aphrodite diverts parents. In these Archaiac tales, Medea’s Circean drug virtuosity is unstated. Pindar highlights Medea’s divinity. In Pindar’s
7Sourvinou-Inwood, Christiane. “Medea at a Shifting Distance: Images and Euripidean Tragedy”, Ch. 11 in J. Class and S.I. Johnston (eds.), Medea: Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy, and Art, Princeton 1997: 253-96.
8Sourvinou-Inwood claims that the audience knows that Medea is a bad woman in myth and that Euripides activates her distancing.
9Her other goddess companions: Demeter, Harmonia, Eos, the Oceanids, the Nereids, Aphrodite, Circe and Calypso.
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