In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

THE Medea OF EURIPIDES crranslated by Walter R. Agard INTRODUCTION EURIPIDES (ca. 480-406 B.C.) during his long life wit. nessed the pioneer development of democratic Athens, the triumphs of the established empire, and the disas· trous effects of the war, which led to growing disillu· sionment in Athens and ultimate defeat two years after his death. His plays, to some extent, mirror these cir· cumstances. But he was chiefly influenced by his asso· ciation with the materialistic philosopher Anaxagoras, the skeptical Sophists (according to tradition it was in Euripides' home that Protagoras first read the agnostic declaration which led to his expulsion from Athens), and the impact of war on the people who waged it and suffered from it; and he became primarily interested in analyzing the emotional and intellectual conflicts within and between maladjusted individuals. Like the Sophists, he enjoyed especially the way in which such characters reasoned in an attempt to justify their decisions. As Hippocrates made case studies of his patients, so Eurip. ides diagnosed the mental and emotional aberrations of his characters. A nonconformist (like Ibsen or Bernard Shaw in modern times), he applied his radical analysis chiefly to three fields: the questioning of conventional religion, an attack on the Athenian attitude toward women, and a bitter denunciation of the brutality unleashed by war. Do the gods exist? Can they be as lacking in plain human decency as they are represented in the traditional stories about them? Such questions are raised in the lon, Hippolytus, and the Bacchae. In the Alcestis and Medea Euripides pleaded the cause of women, consigned by Athenian prejudice to an inferior economic and political position. And the Trojan Women, written during a period of ruthless Athenian imperial policy, obviously projects the brutality of the conquerors at Troy into a contemporary situation. As Euripides dealt realistically with personal prob· lems, so in his manner of writing he used familiar Ian· guage and a conversational idiom. Although he was a lyric poet of great skill, and many of his choral odes, notably in the Bacchae and Hippo/ytus, are masterpieces of poetic art, he usually relegated the chorus to a sub· ordinate position; if dramatic convention required the choral songs, they were best dismissed as quickly a~ possible, so that the action and argument could proceed. But to theatrical devices of plot, and character which heightened the emotional effect of the scenes he devoted the most careful attention, introducing pitiful beggars, young children in helpless distress, hypnosis, magic, and insanity, and, to cap the climax, a deus ex machina in its spectacular appearance. The Medea is perhaps the least "dated" of his plays, representing as it does, even in exaggerated terms, the perennial conflict between the sexes. Produced in 431, before Athens became involved in the turmoil of war, it deals with domestic conflict-the injustice done to women in general and to one woman (a foreigner at that) in particular. Medea is pictured, magnificent in emotional depth and intellectual acumen, defeating the purposes of those who would insult her and her children. Her intuitive probing for the weaknesses of various men -Jason, Creon, Aegeus, in order to use them to serve her ends, her intense psychological conflict between hatred for Jason and love of her children, her superb duplicity cloaking a fierce sincerity, her ultimate trio umph-all are revealed in the most direct and poignant way, through action and soul-searching soliloquy. Sec· ondary are the smugly stupid Jason, the seemingly in· vincible Creon, the courteous old Aegeus, the servants and children, and the kindly women of Corinth; but all are drawn with undeviating discernment. Especially tell· ing is the irony involving the noble-born, "civilized" Jason and Medea, a "barbarian." The language is for the most part that of ordinary conversation, heightened at times by fiery feeling; Jason, in his arguments aimed at self-justification, shows the effect of Sophistic training. The plot is firmer in structure than many of Euripides' plots. The despair of Medea, the supremacy of Creon, and the arrogance of Jason are balanced in reverse (after the interlude scene of Medea and Aegeus) by the de· ceiving of Jason, the death of Creon, and the exultation of Medea. As was usually the case, Euripides was voted only THE M E 0 E A 0 FEU RIP IDE S 175 third prize for the trilogy of which this play was a part. During his entire career he won only four first prizes. H the people...

Share