Assignment for Tuesday, 11-01-16

Dear Mythologists,

On Tuesday, November 1, our unit on Jason & Medea begins. As before, we start with a look at some ancient sources on these characters.

Note that the myth divides pretty cleanly into two parts: adventure in the quest for the Golden Fleece versus tragedy in the death of Jason and Medea's children. We'll be spending equal cinematic time with both, but our primary and secondary sources for today will emphasize the latter.

(1) Read the following chapters from Emma Griffiths' book, Medea (Routledge, 2006). These brief overviews of Medea's mythology and her treatment by Euripides (and, by extension, those of Jason) ought to set the tone for this unit.

NOTE: It's up to you whether you want to read Chapter 6 before or after Euripides' play (see item 3, below).

• Chapter 1, "Introducing Medea"; and
• Chapter 6, "Euripides' Version of the Myth."

(2) (If you need a refresher from Unit 2) Watch the podcast on the tragic poet Euripides and the podcast on Greek tragedy for context on item (3).

(3) Read Euripides' tragedy, Medea, arguably the tragedian's most famous play and the quintessential Medea text. Though our first films will focus on the voyage of the Argo, we'll quickly realize that tragedy is never too far away for Jason and Medea.

DC