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An Apology for Jason: a Study of Euripides' An Apology for Jason: A Study of Euripides' "Medea" Author(s): Robert B. Palmer Reviewed work(s): Source: The Classical Journal, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Nov., 1957), pp. 49-55 Published by: The Classical Association of the Middle West and South Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3294297 . Accessed: 13/01/2012 11:27 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The Classical Association of the Middle West and South is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Classical Journal. http://www.jstor.org An Apology for Jason: A Study of Euripides' Medea ROBERT B. PALMER OF Greek tragedy, and of Eurip- Norwood, for example, with his fine in- CRITICSidean tragedy in particular, have stinct for literature, sees immediately always shown a surprising unanimity that Euripides is writing a play which of opinion in their treatment of Jason, is most un-Sophoclean in tone, since the fallen hero of Euripides' Medea. Sophocles would have created the soul Despite the fact that most of the other of his drama out of "the collision of Euripidean heroes have created a storm wills and emotions" which arise "from of controversy,1 Jason seems to be per- the confrontation of two persons."8 In fectly understood by anyone who has fact, "Sophocles," as Norwood goes on the wit to read Medea. Is he not, after to say, "would probably have given us all, a clear-cut example of a crass and a Jason whose claim upon our sym- boundless egotist (see Bethe, Pohlenz, pathy was hardly less than that of Wilamowitz),2 a selfish ass who pleads Medea." a case to which no gentleman would Instead, it would seem that Euripides care to listen (so Allen, Earle, Gilbert wrote in Medea a rather strange play Murray, Page),3 and yet calloused which is completely dominated by the (Blaiklock)4 and stupid enough to be- protagonist, Medea, even though the ac- lieve his defense a good one (Page, tual pithos or scene of suffering seems again) ?5 In short, is he not utterly de- to belong primarily to Jason. The con- testable (Norwood)6 and contemptible flict, which is so essential to all good (Bates, Kitto) ? 7 drama, becomes then not a conflict be- Both Bates and Norwood, however, tween two philosophies of life, two pre- feel a little uneasy about the type of vailing attitudes, both essentially right, drama they have made out of Medea but, rather, a conflict between two by such a characterization of Jason. Medeas, the one the demon witch who ~i-~pitpi?*i~ ?~Ci~i~i~s~?7-; f ~q "?? ! I :~1 ", .. C ; ~ a~~ . * .b ~~E~ j: i :?~ P? 2~ :I t~ -. .r a:~???~~r 'Bt r/lim` " ? z B + h L? ~. ~ a?;?~ t F ?2 B: ~ (f~...f~. ~B~Szf::~- 9- ?gllr :IZi I % rti~ : f rc?;: ?e j __y A Second Century A.D. Jason-MedeaSarcophagus: a typical example of the influence Euripides' Medea had on Greco-Romanart. Note the dominant position of the hero. (Reproduced, by per- mission, from G. Rodenwaldt,Die Kunst der Antike, p. 640.) 49 50 ROBERTB. PALMER thirsts for blood and vengeance, the fear triggered by the dilemma of a other the tender mother whose children Jason who was far different from the have become flesh of her flesh through Jason experienced by a 19th-or 20th- the mystery and pain of childbirth.9 century audience.12 Such is the mastery (or perversity) of It has long been known that Eurip- a Euripides. ides introduced current political and Bates even goes so far as to wonder social problems into the mythology he where, if anywhere, there lurks in the used as the raw material for his plots. play the "pity" and "fear" which These conscious anachronisms, if they Aristotle suggests should be basic in- can be called that,13 have much to do gredients of Greek tragedy.10 These with the basic tensions with which Eu- emotions cannot be nurtured by the ripidean plays concern themselves. And characterization of Medea, to be sure. yet it is these anachronisms which are She is too ruthless and cold-blooded a often lost in the passage of time as murderess. Nor can they be bred by 5th-century B.c. standards of morality the characterization of the "cold and become 4th-or 3rd-century B.C. stand- calculating Jason." Instead, this pity ards, or those even of the 19th or 20th and fear so essential to drama can only century A.D. The recent sociological be aroused by the children. "It is fear and political studies of Little, Thom- for them and pity for their fate that the son, Webster, Delebecque, and Zuntz14 poet stirs up." make this quite clear, even though With this statement Bates finds him- they may overemphasize the topolog- self in the awkward position of placing ical aspects of Greek drama. Certainly the entire emphasis of the play on what these studies should help us understand he admits to be the fate of two char- that the Jason and Medea we meet in acters "who are silent except for a Euripides are not the Jason and Medea word or two uttered behind the scenes." of an earlier epic society but that their Such a conclusion does not distress counterparts are to be found, instead, him, however. On the contrary, he goes in 5th-century Athens. on to say that "this is a good example Medea has always been understood of the importance of the silent char- in this light. Her speeches make this acter in Greek tragedy, particularly in quite clear. She is, after all, a 5th- the tragedy of Euripides"! [exclama- century woman in revolt-not, to be tion mark mine] sure, a 5th-century Athenian aste or It is difficult to concur with Bates' citizeness, but a xene*, a foreigner, who estimate of the importance of the chil- carries with her the added taint of As a dren, but there is something in his being a bdrbaros, a non-Greek. starting point (the elements of pity and non-Greek and foreigner, she is subject fear) that rings true. Euripides did to all of the stringent laws, written write a play which stirred up strong and unwritten, which Greek society in emotions of pity and fear in his Athen- the form of the p6lis, the clan, the ian audience. There were few Greek family, has established to exclude her. dramas which could perform the func- Her position is a lonely one and her tion of catalytic agent as well. That the speeches, filled as they are with the presence of the children had something new intellectual outlook (dare we say, to do with this flow of pity and fear the new individualistic outlook?)15 must seems obvious. But I must insist that have made a deep impression on a the fate of the children was important 5th-century Athenian audience. only because of the effect it had on the But if 5th-century concepts apply to audience as it experienced vicariously Medea, they must apply with equal the horror of Jason's fate.1" It is pity force to Jason, who, though an exile, and fear for Jason, not Medea, which is still a Greek of noble birth with a Euripides' audience felt as the play deep-rooted relationship to the family, drew to its disastrous close, a pity and the clan and the phratry, and, through APOLOGY FOR JASON 51 them, to the city state. It is as a Greek, born of a xine* or of a concubine." moreover, and not, incidentally, as a There are, however, other reasons hero, that Jason's problem or dilemma why Jason's children qualify as bas- arises. For Jason in Medea is no longer tards. Kurt Latte, in his article in RE a great hero with the aretd"which makes on bastardy, establishes three qualifica- the hero heroic, unique, alone, "above tions under which children became stig- the law" as it were.16 Instead, he matized as bastards: (1) they are chil- is characterized more as a fallen dren born out of wedlock or children hero, "the hero that was," to use Blaik- born to parents one of whom is not lock's fine term for him.17 He who free; (2) they are the offspring of a once was a great individual who could citizen and a non-citizen; (3) they are lead the Argonauts, who could make the fruit of an adulterous union. Ja- Medea fall in love with him and desert son's children by Medea therefore could her fatherland is now "an ordinary be bastards for two reasons: (1) they Greek,"18 a graeculus who wants little are the offspring of a "citizen"22 and a more than to crawl back into the shel- xdne*; their mother's marriage does not tering anonymity of the Greek patri- fulfill the qualifications set up for a archal system. Jason wants to be epi- legal marriage, i.e. a marriage car- "ac- ried seomos: "stamped," "marked," out with engtie*23 or kdosis.24 cepted in the coinage of the realm."19 Medea, in short, is not a gun&*gamete- Yet to be completely eligible for the or "a solemnly married anonymous immortality which the phra- wife."engue'td" 25 try can give him, he must qualify not For the legitimate acts of and himself but his as engtie* only progeny.
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