The Rage of a hero in the Song of the nightingale
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2013
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Abstract
A reading of Euripides’ Medea as a woman who embodies traditional Greek
concepts of the hero while operating specifically in the maternal sphere can provide a
new and cohesive interpretation of Euripides’ play and a better understanding of the place
of the infanticide. Euripides’ presentation of a non-Greek, female protagonist who
rationally and deliberately concocts a plan to get revenge on her husband—a plan that
involves not only killing his new wife and father-in-law but also, more horrifically, her
own children—challenges readers, tearing them between sympathy and revulsion. The
most difficult of these challenges is understanding how a character who distinguishes
herself for her ability to strategize and manipulate others, whose name may derive from
the verb μήδομαι, “to plan, advise, scheme, contrive,” who is fundamentally portrayed as
a rational planner, can commit an action as destructive and apparently insane as
infanticide. The problem is twofold, first, a rational Medea seems at odds with a woman
who would knowingly cause herself pain, and second, the maternal love she claims to
feel clashes with the reality of infanticide. Reconciling these conflicts is a weighty task,
but one that has a solution. A great deal of language in the Medea reflects different Greek
conceptions of heroic standards of behavior. The Greek heroic tradition holds countless
examples of men—and to a lesser extent, women—who rationally choose a course of
action that will harm them in order to satisfy their conceptions of an honorable life.
Medea follows this tradition, both in her actions and language, suggesting that she best
fits within this heroic tradition. What makes her stand out from that tradition is that she is
a rare maternal hero, and thus her sacrifice takes a less familiar form than suicide or
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giving up a family and a long life for κλέος (‘glory’). Instead she undertakes a course of
action that, while redeeming herself as a hero, demands the greatest sacrifice from
someone who is a mother. This maternal sacrifice overlaps with concepts of heroic
sacrifice, and here we see that these two identities are not as opposed as they seems.