Dr. Laura: Medea, we are here today to try to understand why you involved yourself so deeply with Jason and the Golden Fleece—to the point that you had to run off on the criminal spree that you did. Further, I have read over several scripts concerning your actions. I would like to focus on Euripides’s Medea and Apollonius Rhodius’s Argonautica Book IV in order to understand the mentality behind your deep involvement and actions with Jason and the Argos. I have a background in marriage counseling, so we should be able to locate exactly what made you act the way you did.

Medea, you seem to point blame on Jason for fleeing your homeland. However, it seems to me as if you were extremely distressed prior to asking Jason permission to accompany him on his quest. According to Apollonius, "Often did she clutch at her throat, and often did she drag out her hair by the roots and groan in wretched despair" (Rhodius 11-29). You have killed many people, blaming Jason’s infidelity and disposition for your actions. However, it seems to me as if you were wretched before you met Jason and even forced Jason to take you with him on his journeys. Therefore, Jason is not responsible for a marriage with you if you forced yourself upon him. Do you remember saying, "Save me, the hapless one, my friends, from Aeetes, and yourselves too, for all is brought to light, nor doth any remedy come?" (Argonautica Book IV 83-91).

Medea: " ‘Into [my] heart Hera cast most grievous fear,’" and I was wretched and distressed; however, Hera implanted this distress upon me (Argonautica Book IV 11-29). Hera made it so that I had no choice but to leave my homeland with Jason. That is what started everything!! And, did you even listen to the Chorus of Euripide’s Medea? They can tell you as I can how Aphrodite pierced me with her arrows and forced me to force myself upon Jason. The Chorus will warn you, "Never let fly at me / Great Queen, the unerring shafts of your golden arrows / tipped in the poison of desire" (602-605). It was Aphrodite’s fault. Don’t you recall Jason saying, "You were compelled by Love’s unerring shafts to save me" (Euripides 501). According to Melissa Mueller’s analysis, in her article entitled, "The Language of Reciprocity in Euripides’s Medea," she understands how "Jason justifies his failure to reciprocate, first, by arguing that Medea has exaggerated the value of her help and, second, by claiming that she did not act of her own free will. Aphrodite was acting through her" (480).

Dr. Laura: So, your mentality, therefore, that started your killing spree was that you were possessed by Hera and Aphrodite? It was all Hera and Aphrodite’s fault?

Medea: Exactly!! Would you like some herbal tea?

Dr. Laura: NO THANK YOU!! Please, let us continue.

We will assume that initially your actions were not your fault. How, then, do you justify your carefully devised plots throughout the Argonautica Book IV. Your crimes were premeditated. The gods may have been responsible for your love, but were they responsible when you said:

Medea: Are you sure you wouldn’t care for some herbal tea?

Dr. Laura: NO THANK YOU!!! Please, let us continue.

Medea: You are focusing too intensely on external issues—the supposed violence of it all. You said it yourself: you reviewed Euripides’s Medea. According to Thalia Papaloulou, in her article, "The Presentation of the Inner Self: Euripides’s Medea 1021-1055 and Apollonius Rhodius’s Argonautica," Euripides understands the massive internal struggle I experienced throughout the slaying of Apsyrtus and following. I did not cold bloodedly kill my brother, nor was there premeditation. What occurred was an internal struggle of what one should do after saving Jason’s life, helping him obtain the golden fleece, leaving my father and homeland, bringing Pelias the worst of end, and suffering for his sake "To be abandoned for another woman" (Euripides 447-460). If you had been through all of that, and so much more, wouldn’t you have acted rashly? Would you like some herbal tea?

Dr. Laura: NO THANK YOU!! Please, let us continue. It is good that you can admit you acted rashly concerning Apsyrtus; however, I still believe "Medea’s discourse is characteristic of her deep agitation, and it is not unfolded in a reasonable sequence but is rather carried along by the currents of her emotions" (Papaloulou 646). In other words, not only did you act rashly but also out of pure emotion. I believe you are responsible for your actions, and there is no justifiable reason for them. You may have had an internal struggle, but in the end, you allowed your emotions to dominate your logic. How else would you explain your actions that closely followed Apsyrtus’s death, such as the murdering of Creon, Glauce, and your own children?

Medea: Yes, it is true. Even the Chorus acknowledges how heavy the emotions were: "Tempers run high, and cannot be soothed / When those who have once loved begin to quarrel" (Euripides 491-492). But, Jason abandoned me for dead. According to Laura McClure’s " ‘ The Worst Husband’: Discourses of Praise and Blame in Euripides’s Medea," Jason was the worst of husbands, the worst!!

Dr. Lauara: Also, according to McClure and R. Faber, Jason was only the worst of husbands because you forced him to play a feminine role in the relationship, completely devoid of Greek societal norms.

Medea: It is not my fault Jason played a feminine role throughout the Argonautica and Medea. I am not the one to blame for "The seizure of the Golden Fleece, itself, presenting a notable contrast between [us]. [I] stood firm and performed the warrior’s task of subduing the serpent who guards the fleece; Jason merely pulls the fleece from the tree, and then stands there dazzled ‘like a maiden’" (Ahern 2). Jason made himself play a feminine role, and even more so the role of a terrible spouse!

Dr. Laura: Medea, it was not only Jason’s lack of heroism but also your forcing him to be that way, especially through your own words and actions. It is not all that simple—blaming murder on someone because he was both feminine and a bad husband.

For example, throughout the Argonautica Book IV and Medea, you use words abusively. "Abusive language, both as a literary genre and as a discursive practice was not normally associated with females in ancient Greece, especially when directed towards males" (McClure 374). In other words, you can’t blame Jason for your actions on the grounds that he was a bad husband with feminine qualities while you were out murdering your own children and being as equally masculine as Jason was feminine. You were equally a bad spouse because you employed "a frightening status reversal brought about by a verbally dominant female who powerfully manipulates discourse to destroy her husband" (McClure 376). You were the one to initiate gender reversals.

Medea, it sounds as if you have avoided responsibility for your actions in every way. First, you blamed Hera and Aphrodite; then, you blamed your circumstances; now, you are blaming Jason. That is my diagnosis of your mentality: your refusal to accept responsibility for any of your actions. Medea, you cannot continue blaming others for what is ultimately your decision making judgment. No one is going to excuse you murdering Apsyrtus and those following with the mere excuse of "it wasn’t my fault." I am going to have to report this to higher authorities.

Medea: That is fine. I agree with you. I am the only one to blame. We should have a cup of herbal tea and discuss how I can prevent this from happening in the future, for both your sake and mine.

Dr. Laura: NO THANK YOU!! That will be all for now.

Works Cited

Aher, Rachel. "The Nostos of Medea in Argonautica 4." Logos: A Journal of

Undergraduate Classical Scholarship. 1. (2001-2002): 11 March 2004

http://www.logosjournal.net/papers/ahern_2002.html.

Euripides. Medea. Classical Mythology: Images and Insights. 3^rd ed. Harris, Stephen L. and Gloria Platzner. California: Mayfield Publishing Company, 2001. 803-840.

Faber, R. "De Novis Libris Judicia." Mnemosyne. LI.2. (2001): 238-239.

McClure, Laura. " ‘The Worst Husband’: Discourses of Praise and Blame in Euripides’s

Medea." Classical Philology. 94.4. (1994): 373-395.

Mueller, Melissa. "The Language of Reciprocity in Euripides’s Medea." American

Journal of Philology. 122.4 (2001): 471-504.

Papadopoulou, Thalia. "The Presentations of the Inner Self: Euripides’s Medea 1021-55

and Apollonius Rhodius’s Argonautica." Mnemosyne. 50.6 (1997): 641-665.

Rhodius, Apollonius. Argonoautica. The Online Medieval and Classical Library.

1 March 2004 http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Argonautica/book4.html.