Medea

“Now it is born, my vengeance is delivered:/I mothered it.”

Medea speaks these lines at the start of the play as she describes the beginning of her desire for revenge against Jason. She describes these rising desires using the imagery of pregnancy and birth: Medea’s vengeance is something that she grows and nurtures, as a woman might gestate and then raise a child. This imagery introduces a central duality in Medea’s character: she is vengeful and bloodthirsty, while also bearing an identity as a mother. Rather than these traits being in contradiction, Medea repeatedly draws parallels between them in order to foreshadow her future crimes.

“Away with feminine fears/ Dress up your mind like your own cruel home.”

Medea speaks these lines as she encourages herself to act boldly and ruthlessly in her quest for revenge. In order to contemplate and carry out her revenge, Medea intentionally discards the traditional feminine gender roles of being timid and passive. She also connects her ability to commit violent acts to her status as an outsider and foreigner: by referring to Colchis as her “cruel home”, Medea parodies the prejudices of the Greeks towards herself and her homeland.