Medea in Athens: Euripides' Medea

Euripides’ Medea was first performed in 431 BCE along with Philoctetes, Dictys, and the satyr play Theristai at the City Dionysia. Euripides won the third prize but despite his loss to Euphorion and Sophocles, the popularity of the myth of Medea and his tragedy have never ceased to increase from antiquity to contemporary time and places. Medea is the story of the mother-murderer, the scorned wife, the barbarian, the marginalized woman. The complexity of her nature, character, and actions, her “otherness,” and her tragic story have long fascinated and inspired the imagination of artists worldwide, making Medea one of the most widely staged ancient Greek tragedies of the modern world.

"Euripides’ Medea has penetrated to parts of modernity most mythical figures have not reached. [...] Medea has murdered her way into a privileged place in the history of the imagination of the West, and can today command huge audiences in the commercial theatre.” Edith Hall, “Medea and British Legislation Before the First World War” 

Watch Professor Edith Hall discussing Euripides' Medea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_xjPVQxrfo&t=33s