That is not to say that Medea is not heartbroken. She feels humiliated. She has aided Jason in his ambition – from helping him attain the Golden Fleece, to murdering Pelias – only to be cast aside when a more useful woman, Princess Glauke, presents herself. She is especially aggrieved because, to her mind, women have no choice but to fulfill such roles. Speaking to the chorus, (made up of Corinthian women) she laments: What other creatures are bred so exquisitely and purposefully for mistreatment as women are? Think of how we buy ourselves husbands, power and alliances for them, slavery and conquest over us. Bad enough to have no choice in servitude – but to pay for it and celebrate a wedding feast adds salt to the wound. Try refusing the arrangement, or later petition for divorce – the first is impossible while the second is like admitting You’re a whore. (lines 241-252) But Medea is also aware that the chorus members are protected and have recourse that she, as an exiled foreigner, does not. “You are Corinthians / with ancestral homes, childhood friends, / while I, stripped of that already, / am now even more exposed by Jason’s cruelties” (lines 271-275). This is where the stakes of Medea’s betrayal are at their highest. As exiles from their home countries, Jason and Medea were, together, dependent on the patronage of the state of Corinth for protection. Jason’s marriage to Glauke now affords him the added security of prominence within the Corinthian court. However, it places Medea at odds with King Creon who, based on his understanding of her character, decides to exile her. Jason's betrayal does not just rob Medea of a husband. It leaves her homeless, unprotected, and isolated. Edith Hall writes, “the banishment – decree of permanent exile from Corinth – tends to be overlooked by modern interpreters of the ancient play, but in the ancient world to be without a city, or friends in any other city, especially for a woman, was a virtual death sentence” (21). In this light, Jason’s second marriage – especially to Glauke – signals more than infidelity to Medea. In her address to the chorus, she makes clear that it is an act of violence akin to murder. Jason, yes, my faithless husband, tore out the threads I’d stitched to hold our life together. So quickly and suddenly 37
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