Cultural depictions of Medea

Medea by Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys (painted 1866-68); its rejection for exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1868 caused a storm of protest

The dramatic episodes in which Greek mythology character Medea plays a role have ensured that she remains vividly represented in popular culture. Titles are ordered chronologically.

Literature

[edit]
  • In Cicero's court case Pro Caelio (56 BC), the name Medea is mentioned several times, as a way to make fun of Clodia, sister of Publius Clodius Pulcher, the man who exiled Cicero.[1][2]
  • Medea (Ovid's lost tragedy - two lines are extant)[3]
  • Geoffrey Chaucer, The Legend of Good Women (1386)[2]
  • In La Tavola Ritonda (c. 15th century), Medea lives on as the marvelously beautiful mistress of the island Perfida's Cruel Castle (Castello Crudele) in which she imprisons the hero Tristano (Tristan), as "every year she wanted to bent a [different] knight to her pleasure" for she was "the most lecherous woman in the world". Tristano, faithful to his true love Isolda, manages to escape from Medea's magic castle.[4]
  • William Morris Life and Death of Jason (epic poem, 1867)
  • Robert Graves, Hercules, My Shipmate (1945)
  • Dorothy M. Johnson, Witch Princess (1967)[5]
  • John Gardner, Jason and Medeia (1973)
  • Otar Chiladze, A Man Was Going Down the Road (1973)
  • H. M. Hoover, The Dawn Palace: The Story of Medea (1988)
  • Percival Everett, For Her Dark Skin (1990)
  • Kerry Greenwood, Medea: Book I in the Delphic Women Series (1997).
  • Christa Wolf, Medea (published in German 1996, translated to English 1998)[6]
  • Medea plays a major role as an antagonist in Stuart Hill's The Icemark Chronicles trilogy.
  • In Rick Riordan's The Lost Hero (2010), Medea, having been resurrected by vengeful goddess Gaea (Mother Earth), runs a department store in Chicago. She appears again in The Burning Maze and is shown to work under Caligula.
  • David Vann, Bright Air Black (2017) retells Medea's story in prose poetry from a third person perspective.
  • Madeline Miller, Circe (2018) narrates Medea's visit to her aunt Circe to be cleansed for the killing of her brother.
  • Ben Morgan, Medea in Corinth (2018) is a sequence of poems and dramatic interludes which focus on Medea's religious encounter with Hecate. It includes a sonnet sequence composed of letters to Creusa, her love rival, illuminating their relationship.[7]
  • In 2024, Dark Horse Comics released the English version of Medea, a Belgian graphic novel retelling written by Blandine Le Callet and illustrated by Nancy Peña.[4]

Theatre

[edit]
Olivia Sutherland in MacMillan Films staging (2016)

Opera

[edit]

Art

[edit]

Music

[edit]

Cinema and television

[edit]
  • Jason and the Argonauts (movie, 1963), starring Nancy Kovack as Medea. Medea is a temple dancer who Jason saves after her ship sinks, causing her to help him.
  • Medea (movie, 1969), dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini, starring Maria Callas.
  • A Dream of Passion (movie, 1978), starring Melina Mercouri as Maya, an actress who is portraying Medea and seeks out Brenda Collins (Ellen Burstyn), a mother who recently murdered her children.
  • Medea (movie, 1988), dir. Lars von Trier, filmed for Danish television using a pre-existing script by filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer. Cast included Udo Kier, Kirsten Olesen, Henning Jensen, and Mette Munk Plum.
  • Highway to Hell (movie, 1992), starring Anne Meara.
  • Jason and the Argonauts (miniseries, 2000), starring Jolene Blalock and presented by Hallmark.
  • In the 2002 biopic of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera's previous wife Lupe Marín (played by Valeria Golino) and Frida Kahlo (played by Salma Hayek) talk of Lupe's response to Diego's infidelity. In response, Frida points a knife in a non-threatening gesture at Lupe, and calls her "Medea".
  • Medea (miniseries, 2005), dir. Theo van Gogh, an adaptation placing Medea in dutch politics.
  • Médée Miracle (movie, 2007), dir. Tonino De Bernardi, starring Isabelle Huppert as Medea; a modern version of the myth set in Paris. The character of Medea lives in Paris with Jason, who leaves her.
  • Medeya (2009),[20] dir. Natalia Kuznetsova, a pioneer of a genre styled by the director as "Rhythmodrama".
  • Atlantis (TV series, 2013), featuring Amy Manson as Medea.
  • Olympus (TV series, 2015), featuring Sonita Henry as Medea.
  • The 2015 television series Doctor Foster was inspired by the myth of Medea.
  • Between June and August 2016, the Cuban Broadcasting Radio Progreso presented the 60 chapters series The Mark of Medea written by Orelvis Linares and directed by Alfredo Fuentes. In the series, two women, played by the actresses Arlety Roquefuentes and Rita Bedias, commit crimes inspired by the myth of Medea. This first of them castrates her lover in revenge by his treason. The second one drowns her own four-year-old daughter in a pond because the baby disturbed her plans of living with her lover.

Video games

[edit]
  • Liquid Entertainment's 2008 video game Rise of the Argonauts portrays Medea as a dark sorceress and a defector from a cult of Hecate-worshiping assassins.
  • In the 2004 visual novel as well as the anime adaptations of Fate/stay night, Medea appears as a relatively major character under the title of Caster. She can also be summoned as Servant Caster in the mobile game Fate/Grand Order in two variants: as an adult who experienced Jason's betrayal already and as a young teen in the time of her just meeting Jason called "Medea Lily". In the stories of Fuyuki, Older Medea has become an antagonist, while in the Okeanos storyline, where her younger self lies with Jason in the ship, Argo, she is both the protagonist and the antagonist.
  • The Persona of Chidori Yoshino in Persona 3 (2006) and its subsequent rereleases (FES, Portable and Reload) is portrayed with the skull of a ram and curly yellow hair, most likely representing her involvement in the story of the golden fleece.
  • Medea has her own location in the game Hades II, where she talks to and helps the protagonist, Melinoë, giving her upgrades to her skills.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Cicero: Pro Caelio". attalus.org. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  2. ^ a b "Clodius - in ancient sources @ attalus.org". attalus.org. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  3. ^ Fragments are printed and discussed by Theodor Heinze, Der XII. Heroidenbrief: Medea an Jason Mit einer Beilage: Die Fragmente der Tragödie Medea P. Ovidius Naso. (in series Mnemosyne, Supplements, 170. 1997.
  4. ^ a b Le Callet, Blandine (May 21, 2024). "Medea". Dark Horse Comics.
  5. ^ Johnson, Dorothy M. Witch princess.
  6. ^ "Medea: Stimmen". www.litencyc.com. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  7. ^ "Ben Morgan: Medea in Corinth". www.poetrysalzburg.com. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  8. ^ Ernest Legouvé (1856). Medee tragedie en trois actes et en vers par Ernest Legouve (in French). National Library of Naples. G. Sandre.
  9. ^ Langender, Laura (2019). "Wiener Holocaust Library Blog, Collection Spotlight: Peter Kien". Retrieved July 20, 2024.
  10. ^ a b Smit, Betine van Zyl (2016-02-29). A Handbook to the Reception of Greek Drama. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-118-34776-8.
  11. ^ "Origin Theatrical | Medea (Jefers, trans.)". origintheatrical.com.au. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  12. ^ "The Golden Fleece". Concord Theatricals. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  13. ^ "Didaskalia - The Journal for Ancient Performance". www.didaskalia.net. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  14. ^ "Mentis Bostantzoglou". lambiek.net. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  15. ^ Gardner, Lyn (2004-11-29). "Death becomes her". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  16. ^ "German Literature - Manhattan Medea". sites.google.com. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  17. ^ "Médée Kali (2003)". Laurent Gaude, écrivain français, prix goncourt 2004 (in French). Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  18. ^ "Luke, Ray Edward | The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture". Oklahoma Historical Society | OHS. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  19. ^ "New UE composers from France". Universal Edition. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  20. ^ Kuznetsova, Natalya, Medeya (Drama, Fantasy, Musical), Aleksandr Anisimov, Kim Druzhinin, Mikhail Khomichenok, retrieved 2024-07-20