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English World Literature 2

Research Question:

How did Euripides utilize

mythological symbols to glorify the

city of Athens in the extract “The

people of Athens… you will know

you cannot” (Pg. 42 to 43) from the

play Medea?

Word count: 1440 (incl. references)

Number of pages: 6

Done by: Sarah Lee Shan Yun

School: ACS (International), Singapore

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Euripides, often regarded as one of the greatest Greek tragedians along with

Sophocles, wrote largely for an Athenian public. Perceptive of his audience, he

intended to pervade into ‘Medea’, the prosperity that the Athenians had experienced

after the end of the Persian war in 449 B.C.1. Euripides’ style is idiosyncratic,

powerful and allegorical – constituting his usage of mythological symbols that echoed

the traditions of the classical Greek society from the 5th to 4th century B.C2. It was an

era laden by the religion of gods and goddesses, lead by the lores of heroes and kings

– an element that would later give Greece its rich and distinct history. The extract

selected from the play reflected the glorification of Athens, the capital city of Greece.

The character of Medea has just confessed, to the Chorus of Corinthian Women, her

plot to murder Jason’s new bride and her own two sons before absconding to Athens.

The chorus then proceeds to venerate the city before erupting in perturbation of

Medea’s potential perilousness to Athens. “Then how will Athens welcome you,

child-killer,” (Euripides, p.43) apprehends the chorus. At the end of the play, Medea

succeeds in her circumvention to Athens, making this scene crucial in the prevision of

what might have happened to Medea (and to Athens) post-play. This essay is an

exploration of Euripides’ use of mythological symbols to portray the City of Athens

as: superior, united, wealthy, beautiful and pure.

Euripides aimed fundamentally to represent Athens as a superior city, primal

to Greece as the center of prominence. This patriotism was depicted in the first line of

the extract: “The people of Athens, sons of Erechtheus”, where Erechtheus had been

exalted by the Greeks as the primordial King of Athens3. This, in effect, symbolized

origin and provenance, which in turn connoted eminence over the other remnant

cities. Medea, herself, acknowledged the ruler, announcing, “I myself will go to

Athens, city of Erechtheus, to make my home” (Euripides, p.60) at the end of the

play. The same superiority was suggested in the phrase, “children of blessed gods”

(Euripides, p.42), where the symbol of infancy implied the unique protection and

progenitive endearment that the Greek gods had given the Athenian populace. It was

almost as if the gods had appointed Athens, over the rest of Greece, to be the

birthplace for their privileged descendants. The symbol, “holy soil” (Euripides, p.42),

indicated the sanctification of the earth, its formidable development and a preordained

fortune for the Athenian inhabitants. The phrase was also an antithesis of Medea’s 1 http://www.gradesaver.com/author/euripides/ 2 http://www.ancient-greece.org/history/classical.html 3 http://www.pantheon.org/articles/e/erechtheus.html

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denomination of Corinth as “enemy soil” (Euripides, p.41) in her confession, causing

Athens to appear virtuous and honorable by contrast. The symbol of a “diadem”

(Euripides, p.42) was also present, embodying regality – as if the Gods had crowned

Athens as the metaphorical monarch of Greece, giving the city dominance and

puissance over the barbaric remainder. This sense of sovereignty was repeated in the

phrase “And sends the Loves to be enthroned beside Knowledge” (Euripides, p.43) –

the ordinance of crowning, symbolizing empowerment and ascendancy to an

ennobled position, while the allusion to the god of Knowledge exerted the

significance of erudition in superiority. The idea of knowledge determining fate and

thus glory was also present throughout the play, particularly in the central conflict

between Medea and Jason, where the more astute Medea ultimately proved superior.

In the context of this extract, the more cultured and scholarly Athenians, blessed by

the god of “Knowledge”, were thus portrayed to be of a higher hierarchy than the rest

of the Greeks.

Euripides also utilized several symbols to bespeak the unity of the Athenian

society. “Sons” and “children” (Euripides, p.42) implied both a figurative and literal

kinship that related the people. By contrast, the conspiracy of Medea’s homicide of

her two sons opposed the idea of consanguinity as a vital principle – exemplified by

the quote “A murderess, flying from my darling children’s blood. Yes I can endure

guilt, however horrible” (Euripides, p.41). Furthermore, this disparity was amplified

with Jason’s adulterous actions, creating a polarity between the kindred Athenians and

the uncouth barbarians. The significance of family in Classical Athenian virtues was,

moreover, exhibited in the character of Creon, the King who restlessly attempted to

protect his daughter – “I fear that you may do my daughter some irreparable harm… I

have more love for my family than for you” (Euripides, p.25). Another critical symbol

in which Euripides employed was the Greek goddess “Harmony” – relating to the

consecration of the Athenian way of life with amity and balance. This, in turn,

suggested the unison of the people, collaborating in tandem to beget a peaceful

community – an attribute that contrasted profoundly with the chaotic Corinth.

Wealth was another salient indicator of glory and was of singular importance

to the Greek pride. Symbols that Euripides used to illustrate this include the

previously examined “holy soil” (Euripides, p.42); only in this context, it suggested

agricultural prosperity, an abundance of resources as well as a metaphorical

nourishment of the land with spirituality. The symbol, “pastured (souls)” (Euripides,

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p.42) had the same intimation to cultivation, though it conveyed spiritual wealth as

well, contrasting with Medea’s evident lack of rectitude. The phrase “sparkling sky”

signified an age of optimism and exuberance in Athens, where the “sky” symbolized

limitless affluence and empyrean sanction. Euripides repeated his allusion to the

Greek Gods in the phrase “(Aphrodite) breathes over the land”, demonstrating a

suffusion and saturation of Athens with riches. His allusion to “Aphrodite”

represented a wealth of passion and solicitude amongst physical abundance. The

Greek goddess “Harmony” was painted by Euripides to have “Golden-hair”

(Euripides, p.42). Since “Gold” had been used as currency in ancient Greece4, it

symbolized the pecuniary and financial prosperity of Athens.

Aphrodite, also known as the Lady of Cyprus, personifies love, procreation

and perpetual beauty5. Repeated four times throughout the play (Euripides, p.33, p.42,

p.36), the goddess embodies both visible and spiritual splendor. In this extract,

“(Aphrodite) breathes over the land the breath of honey-laden winds” conveying both

a tangible magnificence (perhaps referring to the charm of the Athenian panorama or

the physical allure of its people) as well as an intangible air of divinity and bliss.

“Honey,” suggested a rich and wholesome way of life, while “wind” evoked calamity

and serenity. The same vision of beauty was observed through Euripides’ recurrent

mention of hair – “Her (Aphrodite’s) flowing locks she crowns with a diadem of

sweet-scented roses” and “golden-haired Harmony”, symbolizing sustenance accruing

from the appeasement of the goddesses, perhaps due to an abundance of prayers and

worship. The symbol “sweet-scented roses” denoted the same ambrosia as “honey”,

implying a pleasant and desirable aura of love within the Athenian community.

Through his expression of beauty, Euripides romanticized and glorified the city of

Athens.

Purity, one of the most essential Greek principles, hinges on the concept of

ethnic identity. “Omaimon”, “omoglosson”, and “omothriskon”, were notions of the

ancient Greeks meaning same blood, same language and same religion6. “Soil”,

though formerly linked with the ideas of superiority and wealth, also implied purity in

the expression “soil unscorched by invasion” (Euripides, p.42). This indicated the

Athenians’ resilience against warfare, but more metaphorically, an untainted lineage

4 http://www.onlygold.com/tutorialpages/historyfs.htm 5 http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Aphrodite.html 6http://hellas2010.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=history&action=display&thread=18

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of their people. It was a portrayal that contrasted considerably from the befouled

depiction of Corinth, where Medea, the “exile” (Euripides, p.17) married Jason, a man

of dissimilar race as herself. Moreover, the quote “born golden-haired Harmony”

(Euripides, p.17) contained the symbol of parturition. Along with the allusion to

infancy in the quote “children of blessed gods” (Euripides, p.42), the symbols denoted

a sense of youth and untouched innocence in the Athenian civilization, particularly in

terms of ancestry. The symbols also communicated a hope and prospective for the

burgeoning Athens, that they had the potential to develop into an even mightier city

than they already were. Euripides' emphasis on the purity of Athens and its people is

thus a further approach to idealize and glorify the city.

How then, did Medea come to play in all of this? She could have

recommenced, in Athens, the peril that seemed to shadow her ubiquitously, signifying

a vicious fate of the Athenian people. The cliffhanger thus leaves the audience,

particularly the Athenians, in a state of ponder. No matter the case, Euripides’

utilization of mythological symbols to revere the city of Athens was compelling and

cogent, expressing the distinct style of the classical Athenian playwrights. Not only

did the divine symbols epitomize the Greek virtues of superiority, unison, wealth,

beauty and purity, when juxtaposed with the portrayal of the brutish Corinth, they

distinguished Athens to be the single most glorious city in all of Ancient Greece.

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Bibliography:

Book

• Euripides, 1963. Medea and other Plays, Penguin classics.

Internet

• http://www.gradesaver.com/author/euripides/

• http://www.ancient-greece.org/history/classical.html

• http://www.pantheon.org/articles/e/erechtheus.html

• http://www.onlygold.com/tutorialpages/historyfs.htm

• http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Aphrodite.html

• http://hellas2010.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=history&action=display&thread

=18