Medea

Use these activities to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity. 

ACTIVITY 1: “Medea, the Hero”

Medea is a short play in which we enter in media res—in the middle of things—and come immediately into the action. The Nurse provides an introduction, and we can glean details about Medea’s adventures with Jason aboard the Argo that would have been very familiar to Euripides’s Greek audiences.

One of the themes of this text is Medea the hero. Medea acts like a Greek hero, departing in many ways from stereotypes of ancient Greek women and wives, yet she is also driven to the murder of her children by the end of the play. Break into groups of four or five and think together about Medea’s story and her motivation. Take twenty minutes and come up with an additional scene to be added anywhere in the play, whether it’s a conversation between Medea and the Nurse, a scene with Medea alone, or another scene with Medea and Jason. Some questions to ponder as you develop your scene include:

• Is Medea redeemable?
• What would make Medea’s motivations more understandable? Is that possible?