While there are many reasons in Euripides’ tragic play Medea to sympathize with Medea, she is not heroic, nor are her actions to her children justified. Medea is an easy character to sympathize with in the beginning of the play; however, once she turns bitter and plots for revenge against Jason, a new form of madness seems to change her righteousness into wrongness. She says, “Should I engulf the bridal home in flames, or stab their livers through with whetted blade, employing stealth to infiltrate the chambers where their bed is laid? But there’s this one obstruction: if I get caught while entering to work my plot, then I’ll be put to death, and hand my enemies the final laugh” (ll. 378-384).

Her situation is tragic to look at; however, once she meets with Aegus, her likability shifts entirely. She tells him, “You may not realize what a find you’ve found in me: for I shall end your barrenness and I shall make you potent to seed progeny” (ll. 716-718). By getting Aegus to promise her safety through swearing an oath to the gods of the Earth and the Sun, she starts to let her hatred fester inside of her against Jason and the house of Creon. This is the pivotal point in the play where her actions define her and prove her to be unheroic. Creon warned himself of Medea saying, “A woman acting in hot blood is easier to guard against—it is the same with men—than one who’s clever and stays secretive” (ll. 319-321). …show more content…
Revenge against her husband’s new wife might have been appropriate for revenge; however, for her to murder her innocent and harmless children was beyond bearable. While Jason’s actions towards Medea are terrible, Medea’s revenge is destructive without a redeeming quality. If she had killed Jason or simply been banished from Corinth immediately she would have been remembered as a martyr-like character, always to be pitied and