Medea v. Jason

Student blog posts

The tale of “Medea” begins directly after Jason leaves Medea for the Corinth princess. It starts off with the Nurse summarizing what has happened in Medea’s life after she had met Jason. According to the nurse, Medea has lost everything because of her love for Jason only to be betrayed by him (lines 11-19).

From the very beginning of the epic, it seems as if Medea is the victim of the story since she’s the one who lost everything. However, one might even say that the victim is actually Jason rather than Medea. Although a frequently asked question, who exactly is the victim in the epic?

In Medea’s case, she saved Jason life, aided him in the numerous impossible tasks that he had to complete, helped him steal the Golden Fleece, killed his uncle for him, and even killed her own brother because of him (481-494). It seems as if she made the ultimate sacrifice. It makes one wonder if Jason truly loved Medea or just used her to succeed in his tasks.

On the contrary, Jason seems to be in a difficult position as well. He claims that betraying her and marrying the Corinth princess was for the sake of the family (365-374). He states “my motive was for the best; so we’d live well and not be poor” (375-376). However, if he really did it for the family, why didn’t he discuss it with Medea first, before going about the plan? It seems like an excuse that he thought of in hopes to make peace with Medea.

This epic can easily be related to modern day marriages and relationships. A couple face obstacles that they aren’t able to overcome together which leads to disagreements and arguments. When one party has had enough of each other, he/she decides to leave the other. In many cases, both parties are at fault and both have places where they could’ve acted differently. Medea and Jason are no different. They both are fault for what has happened. Jason doesn’t love Medea enough, but Medea herself is too aggressive and violent. Things could’ve went down a different path had they both tried a little more. But like present day, when situations get to a certain point, neither party wants to any anymore.

 

Quoting guidelines: introducing quotes and using punctuation with quotes

Writing guidelines and resources

Quotation Punctuation Rules: 

When you introduce a quotation:

  1. Make it a part of the sentence:
    1. Both sides claimed to act “in strict accordance with the will of God” ( ).
  2. Use a comma for short introductions that identify who said/wrote the quotation:
    1. According to Stifler, “The great Lincoln was nurtured on the Bible as few men ever have been” ( ).
  3. Use a colon for longer introductions that give an interpretation of the quotation:
    1. Lincoln’s actions on slavery, as on all important issues, were governed by his creed: “What doth the Lord require of thee, but do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” ().
  4. Use a comma to interrupt quotations:
    1. “Take away the Bible,” William Lloyd Garrison said, “and our war-fare with oppression…is removed” ( ).
  5. Use a comma to identify who said the quotation at the end
    1. The prophets were particularly outspoken on the subject. “Woe unto him…who useth his neighbor’s services without wages,” Jeremiah wrote.

As for quoting in literature….

WAYS TO INTRODUCE QUOTATIONS INTO YOUR TEXT: Make sure, if you quote from a text, that you have an introduction tag that connects your own writing to the quote. Here are a few examples:

1. Subject + verb: “She states” “He remarks” (subjects: he and she; verbs: states and remarks)

Aeneas states, “I who had never flinched at the hurtling spears or swarming Greek assaults–now every stir of wind, every whisper of sound alarms me, anxious both for the child beside me and the burden on my back” (Book 2, lines 902-906).

When Kreon claims, “The brave deserve better than the vile ,“ Antigone responds, “Who knows what matters to the dead?” (lines 564-565).

  • Note that, with dialogue, this is the form you should use: simply listing lines on the page often takes up too much room in the paper and then does not give you enough room, as a writer, to develop your analysis.

When called before Kreon, Antigone declares, “It wasn’t Zeus who issued me/This order“ (lines lines 487-488). She further claims, “Justice–who lives below–/was not involved. They’d never condone it!” (488-489).

As Arjuna prepares to enter battle against his family members, he questions, “O Krishna, what good is kingship?/What good even life and pleasure?” (Chapter 1, verse 32).

According to Enkidu, his introduction to the city and civilization ruins him. He tells Shamhat, ”May your purple finery be expropriated…Because you diminished me, an innocent,/ Yes me, an innocent, you wronged me in my steppe” (lines 83, 85-6).

2. According to….

According to The Hymn to Aten, “When [the sun sets] in western lightland/Earth is in darkness as if in death” (lines 13-14).

According to Enkidu, “he who falls quickly in battle dies glorious” (Tablet VII, line 171).

3. Full sentence + quote

Although Aeneas’ actions towards Dido appear cold and cruel, he demonstrates his love and his duty to his son, Ascanius: “My son Ascanius…I feel the wrong I do/to one so dear, robbing him of his kingdom…his fields decreed by fate” (Book IV, lines 442-444).

Gilgamesh’s repetition of his friend Enkidu’s name and titles after Enkidu dies highlights and emphasizes his grief: “How can I be silent? How can I hold my peace? My friend whom I loved is turned into clay,/Enkidu, my friend whom I loved, is turned into clay!” (Tablet X, lines 58-60).

Krsna, as he defends the justness of the war Arjuna is about to partake in, affirms the importance of acting without being attached, or affected by, the consequences: “He whose mind controls his senses/ who undertakes the discipline/ of action by the action-organs/ without attachment, is renowned” (Chapter 3, verse 7)

Dido’s overwhelming love for Aeneas undermines her ability to properly rule her city: “The towers of Carthage, half built, rise no more,/and the young men quit their combat drills in arms” (Book 4, lines 107-108)

Short paper no. 3: Evidence and interpretation/analysis (9/30, 10/5, or 10/7)

Writing assignments

Assignment: So far, you’ve had to write a paper that posed questions about an ambiguous moment or moments in a text we’ve read, and a paper that tried to pose an argument based on addressing one of those questions. For this assignment, we’ll be zooming even more into textual evidence and interpretation. Write a 1-2 page paper about either Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection or Medea, focusing on a few lines of the text (again, try to use lines that you find ambiguous/are open to multiple ways of reading; you should quote these lines in your paper), and giving your interpretation of what they mean and why they are important. Pay attention to details (specific word choices, imagery, etc) in your interpretation. At the end of this interpretation, pose an argument that you think your interpretation of these lines could support.   Please do some close reading (of no more than 4–5 lines if possible; however, you may refer back to other lines/phrases in the text in your interpretation), and annotate those lines–again, provide evidence of your annotation in the form of a photocopy or photograph or show it to me in class (and the annotation should not just be you highlighting the lines–make some marginal notes, underline certain words that are important).

(If you want more specific questions to address about either of the plays in order to fulfill the goals of this assignment, click here: More specific questions about Medea and Sakuntala. You will still need to find a passage and interpret it, but these questions might help you to focus your ideas.)

Purpose: Fundamental to making an argument convincing is the use of  evidence to support it. In the case of literary analysis this means quoting the text. However,  for the use of textual evidence to be meaningful in terms of making an argument, you need to explain how the evidence does what you claim it does. That is, you see the language (or  structure or character, etc.) as ambiguous in some sense and in need of analysis to fully explain how to understand what the text is conveying.

Yet it is important to remember that there are multiple possible interpretations for any moment of ambiguity and you are making a case for one of those. Therefore, it is necessary to show what the ambiguity is and then show evidence from the text that supports your interpretation (disambiguation) of that ambiguity. You need to explain how it does what you claim because your audience does not necessarily read the same way you do. Your interpretation is immediately clear to you because you have made the connections in your head, but you need to make them clear to someone else.

The Book of Genesis

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The Genesis stood out to me the most from the creation stories. Specifically from chapter one to four. These stories stood out because in western culture and religion the Genesis is the most popular belief. In the first chapter it describes and accounts the act of  God creating the world and everything that exists  throughout seven days. Over the seven days God creates the various creatures and plants that exist on earth and the earth itself. After everything had been created God created a human. In this culture there is a belief in only one god rather then many as some of the other creations stories. This God controls and creates all life  rather then having various gods that each serve a different purpose. After god creates a human he keeps in constant contact and closely watches over for him. The human is provided for and God creates a garden for him to live in with everything he could need. Shortly after a woman is created and this leads to the downfall of the human. From this it could be taken that this society did not have a high view of woman and blamed them for societies issues. The downfall comes when the woman is tempted by a serpent, who is thought to be the most cunning of all beasts created by God. In the garden God had created for both the man and woman there was one tree which the were forbidden to eat fruit from. The serpent tempts the woman to eat from this tree regardless of God’s warning. After this moment comes a turning point in the Genesis. Before this God had been very nurturing but after eating from the tree he turns away from them. They are both cast out of the garden he had created to provide for them and curses them to “dust” which can be inferred as mortality. Through this story of creation some questions arise. One question is, why if god created and controls all does he not know they will be tempted to eat from the tree? If god created all then the serpent would have been created by him leading to the temptation of eating from the tree? Why even have the tree in the garden in the first place if it was forbidden? Shouldn’t God have known they would be tempted to the tree if he had created them? In parts 1-4 these questions do not have clear answers but it is clear that after this incident God seems to turn away from nurturing the humans and allow them to fend for themselves. The last question left is, why did God take the time to create any of this? What purpose does it all serve?

 

The Great Hymn of Aten

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While reading “The Great Hymn to Aten,” one of the first things I noticed is the remarkable number of similarities between Christianity and what Akhenaten has to say about Aten. At one point in the hymn, Akhenaten states, “O Sole God beside whom there is none!”(page 33, Line65) This quote lays out plain and simple that Akhenaten believes there is only one God and there are no others. This is the same idea as Christianity, where there is only one God. The hymn goes on to describe another aspect of Aten that is called the, “form of living Aten,” which seems to point to there being another side of Aten that takes a different shape, much the same as Christianity has the Holy Spirit as an extension of God. Just like Jesus is the “Son of God” in Christianity, Aten has a son as well. Aten’s son is described as “Neferkheprure, Sole-one-of-Re”(page 33, Line 121), Whom you have taught your ways and your might.” When all of these aspects of Aten are combined, it forms a more complete image that resembles the model of the Trinity, just like in Christianity. I find this very interesting to see in a religion that predates Christianity. This observation allows me to see how past cultures and ideas can influence one another.

It is also quite interesting for me to see how Ancient Egyptians view Aten. To them he is a loving, caring, nurturing God, much different than the gods of Ancient Mesopotamia. Akhenaten talks about Aten as the God “Who feeds the son in his mother’s womb, Who soothes him to still his tears, (page 31, Lines 47 &48). “You open wide his mouth,/ You supply his needs.”(page 31 Line 54 & 55). The God that Akhenaten, as well as all of the other Ancient Egyptians, has is there to nurture and support the creations he has made and to ensure that they have all that they need to thrive. To the Ancient Egyptians, Aten is everything. Without him, “Earth is in darkness as if in death, Darkness hovers, earth is silent.”(page 30, Lines 14 &22). It seems as if, without Aten, the world wouldn’t be able to function, and everyone would live in constant fear. This helps to reveal just why Aten is important enough to be chosen as the one God to worship in place of the many other gods. He is the God that protects and cares for his people when he is around. Akhenaton describes how “You made the far sky to shine therein,/ to behold all that you made”(page 32, Lines 99 &100), showing that Aten is pleased with all of his creations and wants to watch over them.

It seems to me that it may have been Akhenaten’s goal to win the favor of Aten by creating this hymn for him. Perhaps he was hoping to have a happier and more prosperous life. He could have also written this hymn in response to a particularly prosperous year for agriculture, or in hopes that the next year would yield better crops than the year the hymn was written. He could have even written this hymn to Aten thinking that it would improve his chances of obtaining a magnificent afterlife. Akhenaten’s view of Aten as the singular God deserving worship is most definitely subjective. It is evident that not everyone so wholeheartedly loved Aten, as Ancient Egyptians returned to polytheism after the death of Akhenaten.

Yoruba Creation Stories

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In all of the creation stories, there is the belief of a deity that is responsible in creating the earth and man. However, unlike the Hymn to Aten and the excerpts from Genesis, the Yoruba religion starts off the creation stories with the belief that the god of creation, Obatala was sent by the highest God, Oludumare to create the earth. This I thought was significant because both the Hymn to Aten and Genesis seem to find the creator of the world to be the almighty and highest being, emphasizing the value of monotheism, while Yoruba shows polytheistic views. However, Obatala does play a large role in this creation, as “he placed the corn on the water, spread the earth over it and placed the cock on top…and thus the land spread far and wide” and “gives shape to the new babe in the mother’s womb (392). Oludumare was responsible for sending Obatala and also breathing life into his creations: “Obatala made man out of earth. After shaping men and women he gave them to Oludamare to blow in the breath of life” (392).

Another interesting aspect in these creation stories is the value of animals in the culture. Throughout the creation stories a rooster, a chameleon, a spider, a goat and a sheep were all mentioned. The cock or rooster is seen as assisting in the spreading of the earth in Obatala’s creation: “The cock immediately started to scratch and thus the land spread far and wide”. I don’t know exactly what role the chameleon plays but he is mentioned to have “found a human pair in his fish trap… (and) reported his discovery to Mulungu.” The spider however plays a large role as it “spun a thread up to the sky and down again…And Mulungu ascended to the sky on the spider’s thread to escape the wickedness of men.” The sheep and the goat are sent as messengers from God to humans about life and death: “God sent the sheep with eternal life and a gift to men. But the he-goat ran on ahead and gave them death as a gift from God.” So in a way the sheep and goat may have been seen as symbols of life and death in their culture.

Also, there is a negative view on the role of women during this time. In the creation stories, women were seen as responsible for separating man from God, as stated, “In primeval times, God had familiar intercourse with men and gave them all they needed. This state, however, came to an end when some women who were grinding their food became embarrassed by God’s presence and told him to go away…” (393)

Based on these aspects, we can infer that the Yoruba people were polytheistic and held a value for animals in their culture. From the portrayal of women in their creation stories, one can infer that they had a patriarchal society. They also had their own ways of explaining the phenomena in the world, such as how the earth was created, why man is separated from God, and the origin of death.

The Great Hymn to the Aten

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It’s kind of shocking how much our view on a God or someone/something that is responsible for everything that is occurring has changed over the years. In “The Great Hymn to the Aten” the focus is on the sun god. The story is about how the sun god is the all powerful being, and how the world wouldn’t run correctly without his rule. Reading this during that time period would have seemed logical just because of the lack of information, but knowing what the sun is and what its role is in the universe you start to look back at readings like this and wonder what they would have assumed this ball of light in the sky was actually doing. Where did it come from? What was its purpose? What stuck out to me is that the Egyptians seemed to have this belief that Aten the sun god was the sole creator of everything. That without him nothing would happen, almost as if life would end or stop in time. ” Every lion comes from its den, All the serpents bite.” (20-21)  Aten by the views of the Egyptians is the sole reason that life goes on, that creatures and man are able to do their work. “You set every man in his place, You supply their needs; Everyone has his food, His life time is counted.” (72-75) The Hymn shows that Aten is a creator, he is life and death. He created man, gave him what he needs to survive and live but at the same time he knows when they will die. They view him as the one to start it all, created earth and all its inhabitants. The Hymn shows a little peak into what life was like, Egyptians looked at the sun almost like a start button. When the sun was up life started but when it set life took a pause. “All labor ceases when you rest in the west.” (117) I wonder what the Egyptians would say if they knew what the sun was actually all about? and at the same time I want to know what they thought of the moon? How did the moon fall into this worship of the sun? Maybe the moon was a god too.

Book of Genesis, The Hebrew Bible

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The reading which I chose was the two creation stories from Genesis, found in the Old Testament, or the Hebrew Bible.  One main reason I am choosing to this is because for most of my life, religious education was always a school subject. I always had to take everything at face value. This time, however, I can remain objective and read the stories I’ve been studying as an outsider, looking more at the compositing than the faith value.

One obvious standout between the two stories is differing accounts of the creation of the universe and of the creatures that dwell in it. The main difference between the creation story from the first chapter of Genesis and the second chapter of Genesis is thus: In the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, God creates everything in six days, starting with light and darkness, and then ending with creating man and woman both on the sixth and final day, then resting on the seventh. The second chapter of Genesis has God creating man first, and giving him the companionship of the animals of the Garden of Eden, then taking a rib to create Eve.

As someone who has read a good bit of the Good Book, this happens a lot, especially in the New Testament, where the stories focus on different areas to appeal to different groups of people, so the two creation stories exist probably for this reason. The feeling I have from the first Genesis story is it is a little more straightforward. What I mean is that I see it as a bullet-pointed list. The feeling I have of how these people saw God is somewhat detached, that is, not active all the time with the Earth. In this story, God creates everything a little at a time and either “saw that it was good” (Norton 158) or tell the living creations to “be fruitful and multiply” (Norton 158).  God then rests on the seventh day, which compared to the second creation story, is very much more hands-off.  The first story seems to portray a loving but distant God. After each creation, he “sees that it is good” and is proud of the work done, and God tells man and woman “I have given you every seed bearing plant on the face of all the and every tree that has fruit bearing seeds will be for food” (Norton 159). This shows how much he cares about his creation, and treats them well enough by giving domain over the rest of creation, but God isn’t constantly there, he rests on the seventh day, unlike the God portrayed in the second Genesis story.

In the second Genesis creation story, Adam is created first, and is placed into the Garden of Eden, which was not mentioned in the first story.  Also, in the first story, Adam and Eve were created on the same day. In the second creation story, Adam is made first and Eve is then taken from Adam’s ribs “This one at last, bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This one shall be called Woman, for from man was this one taken” (Norton 160). Most importantly, I believe that this story reflects a people who believe God was more vengeful.  Firstly, in the first Genesis story, God gave man and woman “every seed bearing plant” but in the second story, God restricts them form eating from the tree of knowledge, “from the tree of knowledge , good and evil,  you shall not eat” (Norton 158-159). Also, they see God as vengeful because at the end of this creation story, God punishes all those involved “to the woman he said ‘I will terribly sharpen your birth pangs, in pain you shall bear children…’ to the man He said ‘Cursed be the soil for your sake, … by the sweat of your brow shall you eat your bread till you return to the soil’” (Norton 161).  This seems to be a way for people to come to terms with the terribleness of the world and all the pain and suffering people have to deal with every day.

Group of creation stories

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I believe that the Yoruba creation stories, The Creation of Land and The Creation of Man, have a similar/different relationship to each other.  They both lead to an order of creation such as the land first and then the humans.  I notice that there are no restrictions in the creation of the dry land; however, I wonder why there is a limit on the creation of people?  It can be seen in the middle of the second passage: “One day Obatala drank palm wine.  Then he started to make hunchbacks and cripples, albinos and blind men.  From that day onwards hunchbacks and albinos and all deformed persons are scared to Obatala.  But his worshippers are forbidden to drink palm wine.” (392) I thought that worshipping him would be a good act of respect towards him including drinking the wine.  Unless the wine serves as a forbidden drink to humans; only the creation God can have the wine due to his creation work on earth.  I believe that this text can be comparable to The Forbidden Fruit passage of the Myths on the Origin of Death.  God makes a commandment to Ba-atsi about the prohibition of eating off the Tahu tree; likewise, people cannot drink from the palm wine.  I would hint that the punishment of death would be the same for both cases.  These two passages show that there must be obedience to a certain God.  The Gods have the ability to create humans; therefore, they are able to establish rules.

I also find the story, Man Chooses Death in Exchange for Fire, interesting.  Once men were old, God made them young.  Then the greedy men decided to beg God for fire and in return his message stated they will receive fire if men will die.  The author mentions “The man took the fire from God, but ever since then all men must die.” (393). I question how can men not have a fear of death or are they avoiding it?  This shows the high level of greed for an object, including material goods, that leads to people’s risk.  The men always take God’s gifts, but never return favors or show acceptance/appreciation.  In fact they have selfish attitudes toward God.  In a worse case these men have full knowledge of their intentions regardless of the serious consequences.

Finally, I would like to mention about the Song of Creation by Rig Veda.  There was nothing before existence until The One made its presence and created the world through impulse, desire, wisdom, etc.  Hindu religion has beliefs on reincarnation, endless worlds, and multiple times of creation and destruction.  The end of the song plays “But, after all, who knows, and who can say whence it all came, and how creation happened? The gods themselves are later than creation, so who knows truly whence it has arisen?….” (lines 21-28).  I am curious about the identity of The One as a God or someone else and whether it truly created the world.