Long Lost Reviews is a monthly meme created by Ally over at Ally’s Appraisals which is posted on the second Thursday of every month. The aim is to start tackling your review backlog. Whether it’s an in-depth analysis of how it affected your life, one sentence stating that you only remember the ending, or that you have no recollection of reading the book at all.
Published: 10th August 2006
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Pages: 116
Format: Paperback
Genre: Play
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars
Euripides was one of the most popular and controversial of all the Greek tragedians, and his plays are marked by an independence of thought, ingenious dramatic devices, and a subtle variety of register and mood. Medea, is a story of betrayal and vengeance. It is an excellent example of the prominence and complexity that Euripides gave to female characters.
As I was looking for a review for this month I realised I had a few written that I never shared outside of Goodreads. I found this one from 2008 when I read Medea and thought it suited the LLR perfectly because it was an actual lost review.
Euripides tells the story of Medea who uses her anger and feeling of personal betrayal as a means to seek vengeance on the husband she thinks has wronged her. Reading this play was rather different. It was strange, amazing and a little bit horrible.
Medea connects to other ancient Greek Myths and this is one of the stories that follows Jason and the Argonauts. After Jason leaves Medea for another, Medea justifies her actions by blaming Jason for leaving after all she had done to help him in the past.
There are some pretty strong themes in this story, there are various forms of violence and Euripides does describe them well despite their nature. being a play a few things are left off stage and no seen but the meaning is clear and the results are obvious. You get to understand where Medea is coming from the way Euripides presents her. She has monologues and discussions with various people, but you can also see how irrational and ridiculous she is being as well.
As I say, it isn’t the most pleasant story, but it is interesting and amazing at what this woman does. The lengths she will go to and the destruction she intentionally causes with justifications for every step simply for revenge is astonishing.
Lost in a Good Book 