About Medea

An Ancient Immigration Story

The myth of Medea & Jason, two well-known figures in Greek mythology, forms the basis of both the classical play Medea and Luis Alfaro's adaptation Mojada. The story of Medea is often regarded as an immigration parable; in it, Medea is isolated as a foreigner when she moves to the island of Corinth with Jason. Her hardships result from a societal pressure to conform and a prejudice against foreigners on the part of the Corinthians, and the consequences of these prejudices are depicted violently in the end of the tragedy. Read below to learn more about the Greek myth and Euripides' famous play.

Medea on her golden chariot, by Germán Hernández Amores

The Source Myth: Medea & Jason

Medea is first introduced in Greek mythology after Jason came from Iolcus to Colchis in an attempt to claim his inheritance and throne by retrieving the Golden Fleece. A sorcerer, Medea was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, niece of Circe and the granddaughter of the sun god Helios.

Upon meeting, Medea fell in love with Jason and promised her skills to help him only if he agreed to marry her. Jason agreed, knowing Medea and her powers would help him long run. King Aeëtes promises the Golden Fleece to Jason if he completes a list of tasks: ploughing a field with a fire-breathing oxen; sowing the teeth of a dragon; and killing the sleepless dragon that guards the fleece. Jason succeeds with help from Medea and her sorcery. Medea distracts her father by killing her brother Absyrtus, and her and Jason flee.

Back in Iolcus, Jason's father Pelias refuses to give his throne up to Jason. Medea convinces Pelias's daughters to kill King Pelias in revenge. Following the murder, Jason and Medea flee to Corinth. There, they are married and live together for 10 years.

Years later, Jason abandons Medea for the King's daughter, Glauce. Several endings of the story exist. Predating the fifth century BC, the poet Eumelus wrote that Medea killed her children by accident. The poet Creophlus, however, blamed their murders on the citizens of Corinth. Euripides' version of Medea's story became the standard after its first performance and documentation. In his ending, Medea kills Glauce and her own children before fleeing in a golden chariot.

Euripides' Medea

Euripides was a tragedian of classical Athens who lived from 480 BC to 406 BC. One of three ancient Greek tragedians alongside Aeschylus and Sophocles, Euripides is well known because a number of his plays survived in full. He wrote 92 plays in his career, of which 18 survived more or less complete. Euripides is famous for his representations of mythical heroes as ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

Medea premiered in 431 BC at the City Dionysia festival, a large festival in Athens which centered on playwrights competing with theatrical performances of tragedies. Medea placed last in the competition, but was still well regarded. The play experienced renewed interest in the feminist movements of the 1900s, as its sympathetic portrayal of Medea's struggle in a male-dominated world is often interpreted as feminist.

Euripides' version of Medea became the standard. In his ending, Medea took her revenge by sending Glauce a dress and golden coronet, covered in poison. This resulted in the deaths of both the princess and the king, Creon, when he went to save his daughter. Medea then continued her revenge, murdering two of her children herself and refusing to allow Jason to hold the bodies. Afterward, she left Corinth and flew to Athens in a golden chariot driven by dragons sent by her grandfather, Helios, god of the sun. This gift from the Gods indicates that she has the favor of the Gods, despite her violent actions.

A bust of Euripides

Features of Greek Tragedy

Greek tragedy is the foundation of Western theatrical aesthetics and practices. Many features of the Greek tragedy are used, recycled, or reinvented for American media, from the Greek Chorus in Disney's Hercules to mythical figures coming to life in Broadway's Hadestown. Below are details about just a few features of Greek tragedy, and insights into how they manifest on stage in Mojada.

The Greek chorus: A Greek chorus (or simply chorus) is a group of homologous performers who comment with a collective voice on the dramatic action of the play. Rather than speaking through individualized characters or voices, the Greek chorus acts as a unit, often dancing as one or singing and speaking their lines in unison. The chorus offered background information and summaries to help the audience follow the performance. They also helped the characters on stage by providing them insight about hidden fears and secrets.

In Euripides' Medea, the chorus represents Corinthian women, commenting on Medea's actions and her perception by the rest of Corinth. In Mojada, the Greek chorus role is adopted by the character Tita. Tita, the family's beloved housekeeper and Medea's spiritual guide, gives the audience context at the beginning of the play. At other points in the story, Tita delivers monologues that provide more information to the audience and to Medea.

Greek chorus in Teatro Patologico's Medea

Offstage violence: Greek and Roman tragedies deal with violence and vengeance, and end more often than not in gruesome death. Rather than depicting the violence on stage, however, most often Greek plays explain the violence as it happen/happened off stage. For example, when Atreus kills Thyestes' children and serves them up to Thyestes in the Roman author Seneca's Thyestes, all the gruesome details were observed by and reported on by a Messenger and the Chorus.

In Mojada as in Medea, there are on-stage depictions of violence. But, when it comes to the final acts of revenge, the action takes place off stage, and leaves the audience to fill in the gaps of what happened with their own imagination. Though this Greek theatrical convention was largely based on religious considerations, it is also a result of the practical constraints of staging violence, and begs the question: what does the audience gain from watching such violence unfold before them?

Medea's Spirituality and Sorcery: In Greek myth, Medea is a sorceress, having inherited her power from her grandfather Helios and her sorcerer father Aeëtes, who is the brother of the famed sorcerer Circe. She is often depicted as priestess of the goddess Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, boundaries, crossroads, and ghosts. In helping Jason, Medea performed several feats: she imbued an unguent spread with protection from the bull's fire; warned Jason using her powers of foresight; and provided Jason with narcotic herbs, among other things.

In Mojada, Medea's magic is pulled from Mayan and Aztec traditions. Tita is a curandera, blessed with healing abilities and a special connection to her ancestors and the spiritual realm. Tita taught Medea, and Medea's abilities manifest in her sewing and craftsmanship. These abilities are depicted on stage in a series of rituals drawn from Mayan and Aztec tradition, and in the ending with Medea's final act of vengeance.

Transformation into Mojada

Luis Alfaro uses the Greek tragedy to platform the issues of the Latino/a and Chicano/a communities. He takes a text that is regarded as the West's first immigration story - Medea - and transforms it into a parable that depicts the lives of the Mexican-American community as it is affected by immigration. Visit the ABOUT MOJADA page to read more about the play's content.

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