168 Pages
    by Routledge

    168 Pages
    by Routledge

    Giving access to the latest critical thinking on the subject, Medea is a comprehensive guide to sources that paints a vivid portrait of the Greek sorceress Medea, famed in myth for the murder of her children after she is banished from her own home and replaced by a new wife. Emma Griffiths brings into focus previously unexplored themes of the Medea myth, and provides an incisive introduction to the story and its history.

    Studying Medea’s ‘everywoman’ status – one that has caused many intricacies of her tale to be overlooked – Griffiths places the story in ancient and modern context and reveals fascinating insights into ancient Greece and its ideology, the importance of life, the role of women and the position of the outsider.

    In clear, user-friendly terms, the book situates the myth within analytical frameworks such as psychoanalysis, and Griffiths highlights Medea’s position in current classical study as well as her lasting appeal.

     

    1. Introducing Medea  2. Mythology and Sources  3. Key Themes: Origins, Folktale and Structuralism  4. Key Themes: Witchcraft, Children and Divinity  5. Key Themes: Ethinicity, Gender and Philosophy  6. Euripides' Version of Myth  7. Myth about Myth: From Greece to Rome  8. Medea Afterwards: Medea after Greece and Rome  9. Medea Afterwards: Medea in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries.  Guide to Further Reading.  Bibliography

    Biography

    Emma Griffiths is Lecturer in Classics at the University of Manchester.

    "The writing is clear and engaging throughout and left this reader far more interested in Medea upon finishing the book than when he began it."

    -David B. Hollander, Iowa State University

    Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft, Volume 2, Number 1 (Summer 2007)

    "[This] is the best up-to-date overview and an excellent starting point for further research.Compact and rich overview of this multifaceted heroine in ancient texts, cults, and images, and in later European traditions. It includes intelligent analyses of current scholarship on Medea, a good bibliography, and suggestions for further reading."

    Oxford Bibliographies Online