Parodos

Question 1

Who is the chorus

Answer 1

Chorus of Corinthian women (sympathetic to Medea)

Question 2

What do the chorus do as a sort of introduction

Answer 2

remind us that Medea is from Colchis (and thus a stranger)
Tell us that the house has become dear to them
(Nurse says there is no more house)

Question 3

What does Medea say that continues on from the Prologos

Answer 3

Medea: I gain nothing more from living, asks Zeus’ bolt of lightning to pierce her head
may I find rest in death

Question 4

Chorus respond to Medea’s prayer to the gods and oaths

Answer 4

appeals to Zeus also, and light
will you hurry on Deaths finality (the children will not be able to come back)
Zeus is the asserter of justice and he supports oaths so do not worry about Jason (but Zeus is absent from the play.

Question 5

Medea’s prayer to Themis and ARtemis

Answer 5

prays to Themis(goddess of law, maintains sanctity of prayers and oaths) and Artemis (protector of marriage, but marriage is already over)
Jason was bound with oaths

Question 6

Medea is vindictive (in the same speech in which she prays to Themis and ARtemis) vindictive, misses family and is a murderess

Answer 6

I hope one day him and his bride pounded to nothing, house and all, as they wronged me unprovoked (vindictive)
Appeals to father and City, how she wishes she had not left them
Killer of my brother, sinister,
( she cut him up as she was fleeing with Jason into small pieces she threw into the sea to delay the pursuit. Her father picked the pieces up
Euripides does not mention the horrific details, sympathetic view of Medea though danger for children.)

Question 7

The Chorus try to make her feel better

Answer 7

Chorus wishes she came to them and listen to the tone of their words, they could offer warm and ready sympathy, they want to help, don’t want to fail her, asks nurse to bring her to them.

Question 8

Nurse describes her as an animal

Answer 8

Nurse says she throws her servants the wild glance of a lioness with young (animalistic, second time, but ironic as she is not being protective but shows her dominance and the inability to save the, children from her motherly control)

foreboding say that it will be by no trivial action that my mistress will lay her anger to rest

Question 9

Music at feast

Answer 9

Almost randomly the nurse talks about music at feasts and how before it cured people from hateful sorrow (this life no longer exists)
-by going against the common Greek view when she says all music offers is trivial entertainment. Music was considered important as it promoted harmony in the human soul. This shows the nurse can’t relate to the old aristocratic lifestyle when epic poetry was sung to appreciative audiences and she doesn’t grasp how far beyond and possible psychological harmony Medea has moved.

Question 10

What is the final thing Chorus say (mirrors the beginning of their ode

Answer 10

The Chorus end expressing they can hear her laments and reminds the audience that she was brought across the sea through gloomy waters to the Hellespont…she is a foreigner.

Question 11

Why does Medea say she has exited the house (notice that this is what an Athenian woman would be expected to do, so sympathetic to the audience)

Answer 11

exits the house in case the Corinthian women have found a fault with her

Question 12

Medea about not knowing people

Answer 12

Men do not judge justly with their eyes when they don’t know the true nature of a persons heart (Creon later) and hate without first suffering a grievance

Question 13

Medea is not being a nuisance

Answer 13

Explains that as a foreigner she has tried to fit in all she could, she condemns those that don’t and are a thorn in their fellows flesh

Question 14

Why does MEdea say she is upset

Answer 14

Her heart has been broken however and she is lost, forfeited all joy and wants to die
The man that was her everything has proved the vilest of all

Question 15

How does she address the chorus

Answer 15

“My friends” the chorus never address her as such, preferring “lady” is she simply to inhuman?

Question 16

Medea’s feminist speech, honourable

Answer 16

women must buy a husband with a vast outlay of money and take a master for our bodies.
Good or bad husband. Divorce brings shame and a woman cannot refuse a man’s rights.
Prophetic powers are needed to tell us what sort of husband they will have

• When a man has had enough he can go outside to see a friend, we are forced to stay at home.
  men any we are in no danger as we don’t fight wars.
  “I would rather stand there times in the battle line than bare one child” (feminist, especially to the most likely exclusively male audience of the Attic theatre, reminds of the danger to the children)

Question 17

Why is Medea worse of than the chorus women

Answer 17

But you (the chorus) have the city, fathers house, your friends.
I am desolate, no city, injured by husband who carried me from plunder from a foreign land (makes him seem bad, as if she is a spoil from war),mo have no haven and no relative at all. She needs a male for her position to be stable.

Question 18

What does Medea want

Answer 18

Wishes for a scheme for revenge on Jason, Creon, Glauce,

Question 19

What does Medea ask of the chorus

Answer 19

Asks them to keep silence (they become like the audience, unable to stop her actions, stands by helplessly later on unable to intervene)

Question 20

Medea finishes with a strong statement

Answer 20

Continues the imagery, women are cowardly of iron in the fight (ironically), but when wronged in the marriage bed, no creature has a more murderous mind. (Sexually slighted)

Question 21

The Chorus’ response to MEdea’s long speech

Answer 21

Chorus agree to keep silence, think she is right to exact vengeance on her husband, do not wonder at her grieving (accept the revenge ethic, but only against Jason, among the others, remember they are women too- would the audience agree?)