Sorry about the late post!

Even though Medea was much shorter and to-the-point in comparison with the Odyssey, I can still safely say that I enjoyed reading the Odyssey much more. The Odyssey may have been a much more difficult and time consuming read, but I think that Medea is a lunatic, and the fact that she was going to kill multiple people was almost too obvious from the very beginning.

Medea made it abundantly clear early on that she was going to kill in order to get revenge on her husband that broke her trust. With comments such as “Children of a hateful mother! Perish with your father!” The nurse seemed aware that Medea was going to resort to drastic measures too, “Go into the house, children, all will be well. And you (to Tutor)… Don’t bring them near their angry mother. For I just now saw her casting savage looks at them”.

I found the plot device known as Deux ex machina very interesting, because I did not know of its existence until after it was explained in yesterday’s lecture. Deux ex machina is when an apparently unsolvable problem is abruptly and unexpectedly solved. After Medea kills Jason’s wife, father-in-law, and his two children, Jason finds Medea to punish her. Medea seems hopeless, but seemingly out of nowhere, a chariot sent by Helios the sun-god appears and takes her to safety. This plot twist was certainly strange and unexpected.

I honestly found the story to be pretty strange, and I think that Medea is a total nutcase. The appearance of the chariot at the end of the story also definitely confused me. I look forward to hearing everyone else’s opinions about the story in class.