Medea And Hecuba Research Paper

Medea and Hecuba are used by Euripides to represent two aggrieved women in Ancient Greece in a chauvinistic society that only attended to the rights of men. Medea was the princess to Jason but he later married Glauce the daughter of King Creon of Corinth. Jason the Greek hero had taken Medea his wife to Corinth where they had run to exile and takes the chance to woe the King’s daughter whom he marries and forgets about his wife Medea and his children. Aggrieved, Medea aims to take revenge on Jason and ends up killing Glauce his wife, King Creon and her children to cause Jason the greatest pain that he could ever bear. Medea did not cause Jason the same level of pain and her actions cannot be justified. She takes revenge in the most heinous

Medea kills Jason’s wife and children while Hecuba kills Polymestor’s children for him to feel the same amount of pain as she did. They are however, different in their revenge acts since although Hecuba revenges against Polymestor’s children she would never do the same to her children. On the other hand, Medea is cunning and inhumane and takes out revenge on his own children in an effort to hurt her husband. Eupirides uses these acts to highlight the inequalities and constraints that faced women in the Greek society. The author used these cases to outline the difference in the treatment of women and uses women who lament and cry with the two in every act. It is a case of outlining the different problems that constantly faced the women in the society at the time and a call to action for those who were faced by massive problems in the society. It was therefore a proper account of different aspects and traits that could be highlighted with the best attributes being creatively represented and analyzed for a proper change process. The women are first depicted as victims and they later transform and take revenge on their captors and perpetrators. It is a call for justice that is represented and modeled through a model of change that can be defined and developed in the society

Aristotle notes that, To passion and anger are due acts of revenge. Revenge and punishment are different things. Punishment is inflicted for the sake of the person punished; revenge for that of the punisher, to satisfy his feelings.” (Rh. I. 10, 1369b 12-13). The statement and observation by Aristotle strongly applies to this case since it augments all the different traits and aspects that were developed and ascertained in the two stories. Passion and anger are due acts of revenge, that were highlighted in the two acts by Medea and Hecuba who were defined by their acts as has been represented by their actions against their perpetrators. Hecuba was angry against Polymester for the death of her son and the suffering that she had endured against Greece (Foley 57). She had witnessed the death of all her children at the hands of the Greeks and had to take revenge against at least one of the last act. On the other hand, Medea’s need for revenge is due to passion and takes the actions towards developing a difference in opinion and models that are extrapolated and correlated in the different models and fields accordingly. It is essentially represented with a working approach being created that is aimed at creating and developing the best means and attributes towards change in the society accordingly. Aristotle also notes that revenge is not for the afflicted but for the person who