Revenge and Ethics in Euripides’ Medea

In his Medea, Euripides highlights the ethical ambiguity of Medea's slaughtering of her sons by concentrating on Medea's problem of revenge. As the ethical crux of the tragedy, understanding this deed of slaughtering is the key to the understanding of Medea's ethical choice. Medea gradually loses her basis of moral indignation during her quest for justice. And her egocentric self-love is fully shown in her intentional killing of her sons. In deifying Medea after her murdering of her sons, Euripides has conveyed the paradox inherent in the Athenian democracy: Athenian democracy has provided fertile soil for individualism which it cannot afford. The encouraging and deification of the pursuit of freedom and eros will bring destruction to the polis. As a play staged on the eve of the Peloponnesian War, Euripides may have also conveyed his concern about Athenian democracy going to extremes in his Medea: just like Medea, the individual who is full of self-awareness and self-will, the polis of Athens may get out of control in its endless pursuit of freedom and democracy.