Learning Outcomes:
On completion of this module students should be able to:
* translate the text with confidence and accuracy;
* evaluate modern interpretations of the text;
* answer questions on specific points in the text;
* construct a relevant and analytical essay on the text.
Indicative Module Content:
Prescribed Text
Euripides, Medea, ed. D.J. Mastronarde (Cambridge University Press, 2002)
The edition by A. Elliott (Oxford University Press, 1969) is more elementary, and has a useful vocabulary.
Recommended Secondary Literature
W. Allan, Euripides: Medea (London, 2002)
A.P. Burnett, ‘Medea and the tragedy of revenge’ Classical Philology 68 (1973), 1–24 (http://www.jstor.org/stable/268785)
–––––– , Revenge in Attic and Later Tragedy (Berkeley & Los Angeles, 1998), Ch. 8
D.J. Conacher, Euripidean Drama (Toronto, 1967), Ch. 10
H.P. Foley, ‘Medea’s Divided Self’, Classical Antiquity 8 (1989), 61–85 ≈ Female Acts in Greek Tragedy (Princeton, 2001), Ch. III.5
R. Just, Women in Athenian Law and Life (London, 1989), pp. 268–76
B.M.W. Knox, ‘The Medea of Euripides’, Yale Classical Studies 25 (1977), 193–225. Reprinted in E. Segal (ed.), Oxford Readings in Greek Tragedy (Oxford, 1983)
Indicative Coursework Essay Titles
(a) ‘A bourgeois quarrel between an obtusely selfish man and an over-passionate woman’ (D.W. Lucas). How adequate is this as an account of Euripides’ Medea?
(b) ‘Medea is quite certain that the gods will support her punishment of Jason. And the final surprising appearance of the chariot of the sun seems to prove her right’ (Helene Foley). Discuss.