Reexamining Medea’s Monstrosity in Greek Mythology and Eilish Quin’s <i>Medea</i>
In 2024, Eilish Quin published the novel <i>Medea</i>, which is a feminist approach to the Medea myth from Greek mythology. Medea’s myth is heavily influenced by Euripides’ play <i>Medea</i>, a play in which she kills her children to enact revenge on her cheating husband Jaso...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Humanities |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/13/6/168 |
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| Summary: | In 2024, Eilish Quin published the novel <i>Medea</i>, which is a feminist approach to the Medea myth from Greek mythology. Medea’s myth is heavily influenced by Euripides’ play <i>Medea</i>, a play in which she kills her children to enact revenge on her cheating husband Jason. Quin’s novel is a reimagining of the myth, which explores Medea’s monstrosity and attempts to make her more sympathetic and less monstrous than the source text. I argue that Quin’s novel pulls from established characteristics of Medea that depict her as a monster and attempts to shift the narrative perspective. Using monster theory, I examine Medea’s monstrosity by looking at Euripides’ play and Quin’s novel. Quin attempts to recast Medea as a sympathetic woman instead of a monster through Medea’s anti-woman sentiments and monstrous power, along with her status as an outsider; moreover, Medea’s villainous nature is removed by changing the story surrounding the murder of her brother and children while stressing Jason’s excessively violent nature. Quin’s novel reflects a contemporary concern with female autonomy and victimization, but the novel’s approach highlights the issues with trying to remove Medea’s monstrosity. |
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| ISSN: | 2076-0787 |