Philoi (Friends) & Ekthoi (Enemies) in Euripides’ Medea
Nurse. “Now all is hatred: love [‘philtata’: beloved things] is sickness-stricken.” (16)
Pedagogus. “Old bonds of love are aye outrun by feet / Of new: – no friend [philos] is he unto this house.” (76-7)
Nurse. “…to his friends [philous] he stands convicted of baseness.” (84)
Pedagogus. “…no man loves [philei] his neighbour as himself…” (86)
Nurse. “To foes [‘ekthrous’: enemies] may she work ill, and not to friends [‘philous’: beloved ones]!” (95)
Medea to Chorus. “Thine is this city, thine a father’s home, / Thine bliss of life and fellowship of friends [philos]; / But I, lone, cityless, and outraged thus / Of him who kidnapped me from foreign shores, / Mother nor brother have I, kinsman none, / For port of refuge from calamity.” (252-8)
Upon Creon’s pronouncement of her banishment – “Nay, – by thy knees, and by the bride, thy child!” (324)
Medea to Jason. “Out on this right hand, which thou oft wouldst clasp, – / These knees! – I was polluted by the touch / Of a base man, thus frustrate of mine hopes! Come, as a friend [philos] will I commune with thee – …/…/…thus it is – a foe [ekthra] am I become / To mine own house [‘oikothen philois’ my friends at home]: no quarrel I had with those / With whom I have now a death-feud for thy sake.” (496-9 & 506-8)
Jason’s to Medea. “ - for I know full well / How all friends [‘philos’] from the poor man stand aloof, - ” (560-1)
Medea. “No profit is there in a villain’s gifts.” (618)
Medea to Aegeus, “But I beseech thee, lo, thy beard I touch, – / I clasp thy knees, thy suppliant am I now –” (710-11) This becomes a kind of contract in friendship. She promises him children in return for protection from enemies ‘ekthrois’ (750) and then enforces it as a bond, “were oath-pledge given for this / To me, then had I all I would of thee.” (731-2)
Medea to Chorus. “…unendurable are mocks of foes [‘ekthros’]” (795)
Medea to Chorus. “Let none account me impotent, nor weak, / Nor spiritless! – O nay, in other sort, / Grim to my foes [ekthrois], and kindly to my friends [philoisis].” (807-10)
Medea to Chorus. “Over my foes triumphant now, my friends [philai], / Shall we become: our feet are on the path / Now is there hope of vengeance [dike] on my foes [ekthrous].” (1116-7)
Jason to Glauke [Messenger reporting] “Nay, be not hostile to thy friends: / Cease from thine anger, turn thine head again, / Accounting friends whomso thy spouse accounts.” (1151-3)
Select Bibliography:
Shirley A. Barlow, 'Stereotype and Reversal in Euripides' Medea,' Greece & Rome 2nd Ser., Vol. 36, No. 2 (1989) 158-171.
Deborah Boedeker, 'Euripides' Medea and the Vanity of Logoi,' Classical Philology Vol. 86, No. 2 (1991) 95-112.
Elizabeth Bongie, 'Heroic Elements in the Medea of Euripides,' Transactions of the American Philological Association, Vol. 107 (1977) 27-56.
Anne Burnett, 'Medea and the Tragedy of Revenge,' Classical Philology Vol. 68, No. 1 (May 1973) 1-24.
Malcolm Davies, 'Deianeira and Medea: a Foot-note to the Pre-history of Two Myths,' Mnemosyne 4th Ser., Vol. 42 (1989) 469-472.
Helene Foley, 'Medea's Divided Self,' Classical Antiquity Vol. 8, No. 1 (1989) 61-85.
Helene Foley, Female Acts in Greek Tragedy, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2001.
Ingrid E. Holmberg, "Mhtis and Gender in Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica," Transactions of the American Philological Association 128 (1998) 135.
David Kovacs, 'On Medea's Great Monologue (E. Med. 1021-80),' Classical Quarterly Vol. 36, No. 2 (1986) 343-352.
David Kovacs, 'Zeus in Euripides' Medea,' American Journal of Philology, Vol. 114, No. 1 (Spring 1993) 45-70.
C. A. E. Luschnig, 'Interiors: Imaginary Spaces in Alcestis and Medea,' Mnemosyne, 4th Ser., Vol. 45 (1992) 19-44.
Emily A. McDermott, Euripides' Medea: the Incarnation of Disorder, London, PA: Penn State University Press, 1989.
Jennifer March, 'Euripides the Misogynist?' in Anton Powell, ed., Euripides, Women, and Sexuality, London: Routledge, 1990, 32-75.
S. P. Mills, 'The Sorrows of Medea,' Classical Philology, Vol. 75, No. 4 (1980) 289-296.
Robert B. Palmer, 'An Apology for Jason: A Study of Euripides' Medea,' Classical Journal, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Nov. 1957) 49-55.
M. D. Reeve, 'Euripides' Medea 1021-1080,' Classical Quarterly, New Ser. Vol. 22, No. 1 (May 1972) 51-61.
Margaret Visser, 'Medea: Daughter, Sister, Wife, and Mother. Natal Family versus Conjugal Family in Greek and Roman Myths About Women,' in Cropp, Fantham, & Scully, eds. Greek Tragedy and its Legacy: Essays Presented to D. J. Conacher, Calgari, Alberta: University of Calgari Press, 1986, 149-165.
Margaret Williamson, 'A Woman's Place in Euripides' Medea,' in Anton Powell, Euripides, Women, and Sexuality, London: Routledge, 1990, 16-31.
Ian Worthington, 'The Ending of Euripides' Medea,' Hermes, Vol. 118, No. 4 (1990) 502-505.
