
Doing research for a piece on Medea, which opens Jan 11 at Toronto's Canon Theatre, I've been struck by how the version that continues to intrigue us, Euripides' version that begins after Jason has left Medea for a princess, does not give us a Medea at the height of her powers or even in full awareness of what she is capable of. The full myth starts long before this when Medea puts her witchy talents to use to help Jason obtain the Golden Fleece (which, with my comic book upbringing, forever make think of Scrooge McDuck in The Golden Fleecing. She is much more powerful than Jason. But we don't want to seem to know about her superhuman powers. Why do we want her to be humiliated and vengeful like we are, rather than "over it" like she should be able to be? Perhaps we erase that part of her history in order to understand her weak as like we are, justified in letting go to our more vicious tendencies rather than rising above them.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for the comment!