Medea

Medea's story was told by Euripides in the classic tragedy, Medea.

Medea has come to stand for violence and anger in women; jealousy and possessiveness, the woman scorned; "unnatural" women without a maternal instinct; the activist or feminist woman who retaliates and doesn't take ill treatment sitting down. Along with Antigone and Electra, she is one of the great and memorable female characters (human) from Greek mythology.

The story has been retold numerous times. Particular feminist retellings include:

• Christa Wolf's Medea: A Novel (1996)
• Marina Carr's By the Bog of Cats (1998) (play)
• Cherríe L. Moraga's The Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea (Greek Medea combined with La Llorona and Aztec myth of Coyolxauhqui)
• Kerry Greenwood, Medea (1997; part of the "Delphic Women" series)
• Carol Leonard, "Medea" (short story in Dark Angels: Lesbian Vampire Stories (1995)
• Liz Lochhead, Medea (2001 play)
• Jackie Crossland, Collateral Damage: The Tragedy of Medea (1993; ISBN 0889740429; Press Gang Pub.)

Works in other media include:

• Luigi Cherubini's Medea (opera); recordings include Maria Callas

• Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1970 film Medea, starring Maria Callas as Medea in her only filmed role -- but without singing.
• Lars Von Trier's 1988 TV version, Medea
• Paintings by various artists

References

• James J. Clauss and Sarah Iles Johnston, editors, Medea (1997) (ISBN 0691043760). A collection of essays examining major representations of Medea in myth, art, and literature.
• Bibliography of works dealing with Euripides' Medea, compiled by Professor Celia A. E. Luschnig, available at http://www.class.uidaho.edu/luschnig/Medea/bib.htm (last visited 2007/2/18)