50 Fun Facts About Medea

Whom does Medea kill at the climax of the tragedy by Euripides, as the act that will hurt Jason most?

Their two sons die by her own hand, a twist Euripides seems to have invented. In one older version of the myth the townspeople killed them.

Where did Euripides finish in the tragedy contest at which his Medea was first performed?

Third and last was the judges' verdict on what became the most performed Greek tragedy of the 20th century. Sophocles came second that year.

Which opera soprano played Medea in Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1969 film, the only film role of her career?

Maria Callas filmed the part on location in Cappadocia in Turkey and at the citadel of Aleppo in Syria.

The stage crane that lifts Medea out of reach in the final scene gave rise to which Latin phrase?

Deus ex machina means god from the machine, because the crane normally flew in a deity. Euripides gave the ride to a mortal woman instead.

Which prize did Medea's magic help Jason win from her father, before the events of Euripides' play?

The Golden Fleece hung in a sacred grove, watched by a serpent that never slept. Medea named one price for her help: Jason had to marry her.

Which poisoned gifts does Medea send to the princess who is about to marry Jason?

A robe and a crown of gold, heirlooms from Medea's divine grandfather, cling to the bride and burn her to death as soon as she puts them on.

Which BBC drama about a wife's revenge on her cheating husband did writer Mike Bartlett model on Medea?

Doctor Foster follows the structure of the Greek tragedy, which Bartlett had adapted for the stage in 2012. Suranne Jones played the betrayed wife.

The story of Margaret Garner, painted in 1867 as The Modern Medea, inspired which Toni Morrison novel?

Beloved won the Pulitzer Prize and grew from an 1856 newspaper report about Garner that Morrison came across. The painter was Thomas Satterwhite Noble.

In what does Medea appear above the stage at the end of Euripides' tragedy, safely beyond Jason's reach?

A dragon-drawn chariot, sent by her divine grandfather, carries her away unpunished while Jason rages below. A king has already sworn to shelter her.

In which Greek city, where Jason and Medea settled as exiles, is the tragedy by Euripides set?

Corinth took the couple in after Medea engineered a king's death in Jason's homeland. The whole play unfolds outside her house there.

To which city does Medea flee at the end of Euripides' play, having secured a promise of refuge there?

Athens was home to the play's first audience, and shortly before the killings the chorus sings an ode idealising the very city that will take Medea in.

Which king, passing through on his way from the oracle at Delphi, swears an oath to shelter Medea?

Aegeus had gone to ask why he had no heir, and Medea trades on it: she promises drugs to end his childlessness in return for sanctuary.

Which king orders Medea into exile at once, fearing what she might do to his daughter?

Creon is not the Creon of Antigone, who rules Thebes. At least one ancient writer mixed up the two kings.

What does Medea win from the king who has banished her by kneeling before him as a suppliant?

One more day is all she asks, pleading that she needs time to prepare for exile. She spends it destroying the royal house.

By which name is the princess Jason leaves Medea to marry usually known, besides Creusa?

Glauce shares its Greek root, a word for bluish-grey, with the English word glaucous. Euripides never names the princess at all in his play.

Which character is alone on stage as Euripides' Medea opens, wishing that Jason had never sailed east?

The Nurse lays out the whole backstory before her mistress appears. For the opening scenes Medea is only a voice crying out from inside the house.

Which Greek god was the grandfather of Medea and the giver of the heirloom finery she turns into a weapon?

Helios, the sun itself, was the father of the king of Medea's homeland, which is why her rescue at the end of the play arrives from the sky.

How does Jason finally die in Greek myth, friendless after breaking his vows to Medea?

His rotting ship falls on him as he rests in its shadow, an end Medea foretells in the final scene of the play.

Which philosopher complained in his Poetics that the ending of Medea was contrived rather than earned?

Aristotle wanted a plot to untie itself through what the characters had already done. Even so, he called Euripides the most tragic of the poets.

Which label do Greeks in the play attach to Medea because she comes from beyond their world?

Barbarian simply meant non-Greek. Jason goes further and tells Medea that bringing her to Greece, with its laws and its fame, was a favour to her.

From which kingdom at the far eastern end of the Black Sea did Medea, a king's daughter, originally come?

Colchis lay in what is now Georgia. Medea betrayed her father and abandoned her home there to sail away with Jason.

Which figure from Homer's Odyssey was Medea's aunt, and cleansed her and Jason after a killing?

Circe was the sister of Medea's father, so the two most famous witches of Greek myth were aunt and niece.

Which brother did Medea kill as she fled with Jason, in some versions scattering his limbs to slow pursuit?

Absyrtus left a grim legend behind: the Black Sea port of Tomis was said to take its name from the Greek for cut, because his body was strewn there.

Medea, the great sorceress of Greek myth, is often depicted as a high priestess of which goddess?

Hecate is the goddess Medea swears by in the play as she plans her revenge, naming her as the mistress she honours above all others.

Which usurping king of Iolcus did Medea trick his own daughters into cutting up and boiling?

Pelias was Jason's own uncle, the man who had sent him away on his quest and then refused to hand over the throne when he came back.

Which animal did Medea cut up, boil and bring out young again to convince a king's daughters of her power?

A ram went into the pot old and sprang out young. The daughters then did the same to their father, who stayed dead.

Which bronze giant, guardian of Crete, did Medea destroy by bewitching him from the deck of Jason's ship?

Talos had a single vein, sealed by a nail at his ankle. Under Medea's spell he grazed it, and the fluid that kept him alive drained away.

Which young hero did Medea try to poison in her new home, until the king there recognised his sword?

Theseus was the king's long-lost son, and a rival to Medea's own child for the throne. The cup was knocked away in time and she was driven out.

Medea's ointment protected Jason from which creatures, which her father ordered him to yoke and plough with?

Fire-breathing bulls had to plough a field sacred to Ares. Her ointment, the Charm of Prometheus, made Jason and his weapons proof against the flames.

The winner in the year of Medea was Euphorion, the son of which earlier giant of Greek tragedy?

Aeschylus had died about 25 years earlier. A later record says Euphorion won victories by staging his father's plays.

Medea was first staged at which great festival, where three tragedians competed each spring?

The City Dionysia honoured the god of wine and theatre, and each chosen playwright had a day of the festival to present a set of four plays.

Which long war between rival Greek powers broke out in 431 BC, the year Medea was first staged?

The Peloponnesian War ran for 27 years and ended in the defeat of the playwright's own home city.

Euripides entered Theristai alongside Medea as an example of which bawdy kind of Greek drama?

A satyr play rounded off each tragedian's entry, with a chorus of half-animal revellers and plenty of rude jokes. Theristai, The Harvesters, is lost.

Tradition says the author of Medea was born on which island, on the very day of a great sea battle there?

Salamis is where the Greek fleet beat Persia in 480 BC. He was later said to write in a cave on the island, where a cult of the playwright grew up.

By tradition, in which kingdom did the author of Medea die, as a guest at the court of King Archelaus?

Macedonia was long said to be where he died in 406 BC, though some modern scholars doubt that he ever went there.

Which late tragedy by Euripides, about the wine god's arrival in Thebes, won first prize after his death?

The Bacchae was staged in 405 BC, probably by his son or nephew. It brought one of only five first prizes in his whole career.

Which comic playwright made Euripides a character in at least three plays, among them The Frogs?

Aristophanes lampooned him as too clever for his own good. In The Frogs, the god of theatre goes down to the underworld to fetch the dead tragedian back.

Which Roman author wrote a Latin tragedy Medea around AD 50, opening with the heroine cursing her enemies?

Seneca gives Medea more than half the play's lines and far more violence on stage, which is why his version has been called the more sensational.

Which Roman poet told Medea's story in his Metamorphoses and also wrote a tragedy about her that is now lost?

Ovid's tragedy was admired in antiquity, yet only two lines of it survive. He also gave Medea a verse letter to Jason in his Heroides.

Which English actress won the 1994 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her Medea on Broadway?

Diana Rigg, the Emma Peel of The Avengers, became one of three women to win a Tony as Medea, a record for one female lead in a play.

Which actress played Medea at London's National Theatre in 2014, directed by Carrie Cracknell?

Helen McCrory, Polly Gray in Peaky Blinders, played a new version by Ben Power, set to music by Will Gregory and Alison Goldfrapp.

Which English actor directed the 1947 Broadway Medea and played Jason opposite Judith Anderson?

John Gielgud staged the adaptation by the poet Robinson Jeffers, and it ran for 214 performances. Anderson won a Tony Award for the title role.

Which Danish director filmed Medea for television in 1988, working from a script left by Carl Theodor Dreyer?

Lars von Trier moved the story from the Mediterranean to a Danish, vaguely Iron Age setting, with Udo Kier as Jason.

Which Italian-born composer wrote the opera Médée, first performed in Paris at the Théâtre Feydeau in 1797?

Luigi Cherubini wrote it in French with spoken dialogue. The version that became famous in the 20th century was sung throughout, in Italian.

Which Art Nouveau artist designed the 1898 Paris theatre poster of Sarah Bernhardt in the role of Medea?

Alphonse Mucha designed a poster for each new Bernhardt play, and the actress kept back copies of every one to sell to collectors.

Peter Ward's Medea hypothesis, that life tends to destroy itself, was framed as a reply to which rival idea?

Gaia theory pictures Earth as a nurturing, self-regulating mother. Ward picked Medea to stand for a planet whose own microbes trigger mass extinctions.

Which American choreographer created Cave of the Heart, a 1946 Medea ballet set to music by Samuel Barber?

Martha Graham danced the Medea figure herself at the premiere, when the piece still carried its first title, Serpent Heart.

Which Hellenistic poet wrote the Argonautica, the epic in which a young Medea first falls in love with Jason?

Apollonius of Rhodes wrote in the 3rd century BC, long after Euripides, and his poem is the only Hellenistic epic to survive whole.

What sprang from the soil when Jason, forewarned by Medea, sowed the serpent's teeth her father gave him?

Armed warriors rose from the furrows, and Medea had told Jason the trick: throw a stone among them and they would turn on one another.

Which king, keeper of the prize Jason came to win, was the father of Medea and the brother of an enchantress?

Aeëtes set Jason a string of deadly tasks, never expecting his own daughter to help the stranger through every one of them.