A Critique of Aristotelian Evaluation of Euripides’s Medea

Year 2020, Volume: 19 Issue: 1, 239 - 261, 25.03.2020

Hanife Bilgili

https://doi.org/10.20981/kaygi.704494

Abstract

Aristotle left a legacy of countless pages on many diverse topics such as biology, physics, metaphysics, politics and ethics. Of these many writings, one hasn't attracted the attention, at least not to the extent the others have, Poetics. Poetics deals mainly with poetry, but with tragedy in particular. In this work, Aristotle answers questions concerning this field, such as what makes a fine tragedy, what are the most important parts of a tragedy, what characteristics should a tragedy have, what makes a powerful plot, what magnitude should a fine tragedy be of, what qualities should a hero have, and what kind of a relation a good tragedy should establish with the audience. Aristotle refers to certain poets and their works as examples in answering these questions. One of these works, namely Medea was rewritten by the Greek poet Euripides in the 5th century BC. This study aims at giving an analysis of Euripides’s version of the famous tragedy of Medea, from an Aristotelian standpoint following the principles Aristotle sets in Poetics. In line with this objective I argue that Medea has been misunderstood or misjudged, especially about its supposed immoral plot and characters; and try to show how it in fact can be moral with an atypical conception of morality.

Keywords

Aristotle, Poetics, Euripides, Medea, Tragedy, Morality, Women

References

• ANNAS, Julia (1999). “Aristotle on Human Nature and Political Virtue”, in Aristotle: Critical Assessments, Volume IV: Politics, Rhetoric and Aesthetics, Lloyd P. Gerson (ed.), New York: Routledge, 48-66.
• Aristotle, (1925). The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle, David Ross (tr.), 4, London: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle, (1922). The Poetics of Aristotle, S. H. Butcher (tr.), London: Macmillan and Co. Limited.
• ARNOTT, Peter (1959). An Introduction to the Greek Theatre, London: Macmillon Press Ltd.
• BROADIE, Sarah (1991). Ethics with Aristotle, New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Euripides (1876). Medea of Euripides, Frederic D. Allen (tr.), Boston: Ginn Brothers.
• Euripides (1963). Medea and Other Plays, Philip Vellacott (tr.), 3, Middlesex: Penguin Classics.
• MULGAN, Richard (1994). “Aristotle and the Political Role of Women”, History of Political Thought, 15: 2, 179-202.
• FRADEN, Rena (2001). Imagining Medea: Rhodessa Jones and Theater for Incarcerated Women, Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press.
• HALL, Edith (2007). “Greek Tragedy 430-380 BC”, Debating the Athenian Cultural Revolution: Art, Literature, Philosophy, and Politics, pp. 264-287, (ed.) Robin Osbourne, Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.
• LUCAS, D. W. (1968). Commentary to Aristotle Poetics, 3, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• MITCHELL-BOYASK, Robin (2008). Introduction to Euripides Medea, (tr.) Diane Arnson Svarlien, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Company.
• POHLENZ, Max (1954). Die griechische Tragödie, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
• SHIELDS, Christopher. “Aristotle”, 10.12.2018, Winter 2016 Edition, (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle/).
• SNELL, Bruno (1960). The Discovery of the Mind: The Greek Origins of European Thought, New York: Harper & Brothers.
• SNYDER, John (1991). Prospects of Power: Tragedy, Satire, the Essay, and the Theory of Genre, Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.