Medea: Feminism in Greek mythology
Medea, a woman from another era
Medea is a work written by Euripides in the year 431 to.C, which had a lot of prestige around the world, was the winner of the Euphorion contest, the second Sophocles and finally Euripides, I also form part of a type of tetralogy, with several tragedies which also addressed the theme of satirical drama. The work tells us the tragedy of the protagonist of the story, Medea, and the hard life that I have after the infidelity and betrayal of her husband Jason, then leading her to commit several prohibited and very challenging events at that time, this work was surrounded by an atmosphere of several changes, but the one that had the most impact was the Peloponnese war. The author of the work, Euripides was a merchant, born on an island called Salamina, wrote 92 works, but only 19 are preserved, most of them try legends and about Greek mythology.
In Medea’s work, the author describes the paradigm of a woman in a dangerous way and without limits to be able to intensify Greek mythology and make it more sense to this, also highlights female values and defends the woman, making him a feminist figure, since at that time society was surrounded by misogyny, which means that it was a place full of hate to women by the whole society, as well as some situations that are currently lived. That is why Medea embodies the modern woman because she breaks with all the conventions and paradigms of a woman in the classic Greek era.
In the classical era, the woman had to be submissive, her voice had no vote, they could not give their opinion but only to remain silent and obey the orders of her husband or of any man who approached them, since for them the woman who fulfilled All these mandates would be the ideal woman and not a real. According to Slave (2016) when doing a general investigation, it was said that the women of the classical era lend themselves to obligated anachronisms and omissions, they could not choose what they wanted for their lives but their duty was home and children, that was their only one Destiny, also if her husband committed an act of infidelity was like an achievement before society and was not considered a deception to her partner, so the woman had to get used to and accept the lack of respect towards the home, immersing themselves in her pain in her pain and humiliation.
While, in the work, despite the fact that Medea lived in the classical era, she was a challenging and independent woman, with the reputation of wise and possessing the gift of magic, proud difficult to dominate and very hurt by her misfortune, she took her own decisions and did not expect anything from anyone, much less from her husband Jason. Medea did not care what is said about her, she liked to do things for herself without fear of punishment and much less when it came to betrayal, what she claimed with fury was the oath of fidelity by her beloved husband. She is a woman who cries having abandoned her house, her family, her land to follow a man who did not fulfill her promises.
The traditional woman tended by nature to be insecure, a nervous or fear that was born because of the vulnerability that makes us feel bad and dissatisfied with our image, as well as in a fragment of the work, the protagonist Medea tells us, “ The Woman here is weak, insecure and prone to tears ” (P.99), which means that they could never say what they felt, what they thought and whatever they want for them, for fear of being criticized or punished forcing them to settle their heads and going to their only way out that was to let off steam through crying , at that time the separation of her husband did not give good reputa He was seen as guilty and for getting carried away by fury and outrage was expelled from his land, separated from his children.
This is where Medea stands out from others, since she is a determined woman when making her decisions regardless , Medea opts for revenge as an exit and relieve her pain ‘friends, my action is determined: kill my children as soon as possible and get away from this land’ ‘. (p. 109), the pain blinded it so much until it committed such a horrible crime towards their little children, all this with the purpose of making Jason suff of that time.
In the classical Greek age, the world was in the hands of the patriarchy and he had created a society full of inequality towards women, which generated violence and women accepted this since they could not decide and it was something already written in their destiny. The laws of that time accepted any type of abuse towards women, since there was no law for them.
Contrary to what is established at that time, Medea is a woman completely dissatisfied with what is told and with the conditions that others impose, she is a woman who seeks the best for her, her own good is first, even ahead of the life of their own children. Many times he leaves his friends members of the choir breathless who always give him advice on being a caste, submissive and obedient woman before a man, but Medea does not like the idea of being one more of the pile because of what follows his own plan No intermediates.
In conclusion, we can note that Medea is a woman out of limits very different from the women around her, she is unstoppable, who will always continue in front of one way or another regardless of the consequences that destiny gives her, but never He will let anyone bend and much less than an arrogant man, which at that time was unacceptable, so Medea embodies the modern and revolutionary woman because he breaks with all the conventions of a woman in the classic Greek era.
The work shows us how some see the ideal woman while the author, Euripides, describes Medea as a real woman, full of strength, value and criteria on herself, which is currently normal to see in a woman, fighter for obtaining their rights and being respected, and not criticized or discriminated by macho men who continue to surround the world despite being in the 21st century 21st century. Finally, Medea leaves a great message to women tragicly, one of never surrendering, of fighting for what you want to achieve regardless of the obstacles that were going through, that demonstrates once again that women are stronger than men than men.
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