ostensibly the best evidence of character, is tenuous and poorly defined. The second is that it has no way to correct for the implicit biases of those tasked with determining the nature of a defendant’s character. In addition, as my subsequent reading of Medea will argue, character alone does not motivate or mitigate wrongful actions. It is important to consider a person’s circumstances when determining their just desert. It is my hope that a more holistic account of Medea – one that does not fall victim to the shortcomings Character Theory – will mitigate, at least to some degree, the injustice of the play’s conclusion, while muddying what is traditionally understood to be “true” evidence of a person’s character. . . . Before the events of the play in which she murders her sons, Medea has already committed a series of murders. She kills with ease and even seems to revel in it. For her, murder is not a last resort or a means of self-protection. It is a tool. Medea is open to the possibility of violence to protect herself from humiliation or to simply get what she wants. In other words, murder is not out of character for her. A key instance of this is the reason for her exile from her home. When Jason arrives in Colchis on his ship, the Argo, she falls in love with him and aids him greatly in his quest for the Golden Fleece. In exchange for her help, Jason agrees to marry and the two escape in the Argo. Medea’s father, Aeetes, chases after them. To slow him down, Medea chops up her brother, Apsyrtus, and tosses bits of his mangled corpse overboard, piece by piece. Aeetes, heartbroken, stops to gather the pieces of his son’s corpse, giving Medea and Jason time to flee. Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood points out that Athenian audiences would have seen these earlier actions as manifestations of her character: “[a] woman who betrayed her father and killed her brother for the sake of a future husband she chose herself is a bad woman” (256). The play does not go out of its way to challenge this characterization. Her past wrongdoing is aired frequently by Jason, Medea herself, and the nurse. Jason’s perspective most clearly aligns with the Character Theory approach. He is explicit in connecting Medea’s infanticide to her past actions in the tirade he directs at her on first learning what she has done: Vilest woman! Condemned, hated by the gods, by me, and every human creature [….] Now my mind is clear. How wrong I was to bring a barbarian home to Greece, already a dangerous betrayer of family and country. For this the gods have sent their Fury to torment me, though it was you 33
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