Is There a Polis in Euripides’ Medea

Bibliographic Data

ID7960803
AuthorsSimon Perri (0000-0001-9348-4291, Victoria University of Wellington, corresponding author), Simon Perris (Victoria University of Wellington Wellington New Zealand)
Year2017
Volume34
Issue2
Pages318-335
Publication date2017-11-11
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolis The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0142-257X • E-ISSN: 2051-2996
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/20512996-12340130
OpenAlexW2770753091
LanguageEN
Citations received3

The polis is a dominant force in scholarship on Greek tragedy, including Euripides’ Medea . This paper addresses the question of whether there is, in fact, a polis (i.e. a Greek-style city-state) in the play. The polis proper does not often feature in tragedy. Euripides’ Corinth, like many urban centres in tragedy, is a generic palatial settlement ruled by a king. It is not a community of citizens. Creon is a non-constitutional absolute hereditary monarch, and it is a commonplace of tragedy that absolute sole role is antithetical to the idea of the polis . Medea is exiled, not ostracised; she is never a metic. Her relationships and actions are governed by elite xenia , not citizenship. Thus, though ‘political’ interpretations of Medea are all to the good, polis -centric interpretations become much less attractive once one observes the almost complete absence of the polis from the play

Absolute (philosophy · Art · Elite · Greek tragedy · Literature · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · State (computer science · Style (visual arts · Theology · Tragedy (event · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · Law · Philosophy

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