Medea

Medea opens with the Nurse lamenting that the Argo ever set sail. She even details where the wood for the Argo was procured, a common motif in ancient literature that underlines the importance of sea-faring to ancient Greek society (1-5). The Athenians—Euripides’s audience at the Dionysia—were particularly renowned for their maritime prowess, and Euripides uses ship metaphors both to appeal to this sensibility and to root Jason and Medea’s relationship in its origins, their comradery on the Argo.

“You, too, will drown me in the storm / unleashed by my husband?” Medea accuses Creon. “Did he send you to cut away the sails, / and clear the decks of my last hope?” (297-300). Later in the play, Jason shoots back at Medea: “I suppose I should stand here / and ride out the tiresome storm / of your complaint, put on my captain’s hat, / reef sail, and drag anchor to your mood” (529-32). And when Medea secures sanctuary from Aegeus, she comments, “I’ll ride out the storm my vengeance has caused, / securely docked in Athens” (761-62).

As Burian and Shapiro note in their introduction, Athenian maritime supremacy was something of a double-edged sword. While their navy protected them and gave them access to an incredible trading network, it also brought many refugees and immigrants to the city, which shook up the existing power structures for rich and poor alike (10-11). The connection ships provided to the broader world created a literal sea change for ancient Athens. Burian and Shapiro write, “Old distinctions no longer applied. No one knew anymore who was who. Political allegiances shifted like sand as each man sought his own advantage” (11). This is an apt description of the central power conflicts in Medea too.