Euripides shocks the audience by allowing Medea to get away with four murders. She comes up with an elaborate plot to kill Jason's bride to be. She prepares a garment for the princess that is wroth with poison and has her children present it to her as a bribe to get her to ask her father that the children stay and not be banished. This photo is from the film 'Elizabeth I' where this motif is played out almost in a satire.
The commentary written about Medea in the Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces say this about Euripides' Medea: "The myth is used for new purposes, to shock the members of the audience, attack their deepest prejudices, and shake them out of their complacent pride in the superiority of Greek masculinity." This observation helps us to think about the social and moral implications of the Medea plot. Because Euripides work was revolutionary for its time these social and moral implications have value for us today.
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