Medea

The main character. A princess and sorceress who uses her powers to get the golden fleece for Jason, falls in love, married with two kids when he deserts her and then goes into a destructive fury...

• Glauce

• Medea

• Aegeus

• Jason

Tags

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

CCSS.RL.9-10.3

King of Colchis and father of Glauce, Jason's new wife, he banishes Medea and dies a gruesome death when he embraces his dead daughter

• Creon
• Jason
• Aegeus
• Medea

Tags

CCSS.RL.9-10.1

CCSS.RL.9-10.3

A group of Corinthian women who are commentators and also become part of the action (e.g. when they talk to Medea). They sympathize with her until she plans to kill her kids.

• Messegner

• Chorus

• Nurse

Tags

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

CCSS.RL.9-10.3

The teacher of the children, minor character, brings the nurse the news that Medea will be banished. He watches the kids

• Aegeus

• Jason

• Tutor

• Creon

A former adventurer, he abandons his wife, Medea, in order to marry Glauce, the beautiful young daughter of Creon, King of Corinth. Hoping to advance his station through this second marriage, he only fuels Medea to a revenge that includes the deaths of his new bride, her father, and his children. His tactless self-interest and whiny rationalizations of his own actions make him a weak, unsympathetic character.

• Jason
• Creon
• Aegeus

Tags

CCSS.RL.9-10.3

They are presented as naïve and oblivious to the intrigue that surrounds them. Medea uses them as pawns in the murder of Glauce and Creon, and then kills them in the play's culminating horror. Their innocent deaths provide the greatest element of pathos--the tragic emotion of pity--in the play.

• Chorus

• the sons

• Creon

• Jason

Tags

CCSS.RL.9-10.1

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

CCSS.RL.9-10.3

King of Athens, helps Medea after having visited the Oracle at Delphi, where he sought a cure for his sterility. Medea offers him some fertility-inducing potions in exchange for sanctuary in Athens.

• Creon

• Aegeus

• Jason

• Apollo

Tags

CCSS.RL.9-10.3

Who said:

"I mean it--men should really have some other method for getting children. The whole female race should not exist. It's nothing but a nuisance."

• Aegeus

• Medea

• Creon

• Jason

Tags

CCSS.RL.9-10.1

CCSS.W.9-10.9

Who said:

"Her mind is fierce, and she will not endure ill treatment. I know her. I'm petrified to think what thoughts she might be having now . . . ."

• Medea

• Aegeus

• Nurse

• Jason

Tags

CCSS.RL.9-10.1

Name Jason's boat

• The Endeavour
• Argo
• Argonaut
• Ulysses