The Burial Of Medea's Home Analysis

Annotated Bibliography

Holland, Lora L. "Last Act In Corinth: The Burial Of Medea's Children (E. Med. 1378-83)." The Classical Journal 4 (2008): 407.Literature Resource Center. Web. 27 Oct. 2015. In this journal, author Lora Holland proposed several ideas as to why Medea buried her children in Hera’s temple. Holland searched through a cause for the mother of two to feel forced to not only murder her children, but also bury them in a safe place. The author found that there were four plausible reasons for her actions. Whether it was her enemies, her previous part in other tragedies, the fact that the bodies of their children might be disrespected, or fear of the ghost of her children, Lora explored all of the possible causes of Medea’s burial choice in great detail.

Of course, this article is very well written and, more importantly, it cleared up the little confusion that I previously had. However well written it was, what caught my eye was neither the structure nor the choice of words, it was the fantastic evaluation of the ancient civilization’s rituals, beliefs, customs, etc. In each section, Holland dissects the significance of each particular topic for the polytheistic civilization in ancient Greece. The journal may not help the essay directly but in my own understanding of the culture in which the tragedy Medea was written. With

Jacobs describes the way a marriage between a man and a woman can end if they follow a pattern similar to that of Medea’s divorce to Jason, and compared it to real life study of a family of seven going through a horrid divorce. It analyzes the smallest of details and explains the reason for which the adults acted in such horrible manner towards the children they had in the marriage, children they both love. As the author digs through the psychological details behind the actions of the formerly married couple, Jacobs discloses the similarities in the plot of Medea and that of the couple the author