Journal # 2 - Medea

Medea often uses the gods Themis, the goddess of justice, and Artemis, the protector of women. These gods are often evoked in her long speeches, "O mighty Themis and Artemis..." (Euripides 38) Medea is very pissed off in this passage about her husband leaving her, so she evokes these gods, asking them why they have allowed her to suffer so much in the name of men. This is one example of how Medea uses the gods, she uses them when she is trying to make a point to others, trying to manipulate others, like when she talks about "Hecate, no: the goddess who abides in my inner heart" (Euripides 45), she is trying to persuade Creon to let her stay one more day, she uses the gods a a way to manipulate others into her own way of thinking, and to get them to let her weave her plots.

She also speaks of the god Helios often, this is usually when she tries to frighten people of her, she warns them that she is his granddaughter. This is why she is sucha powerful sorceress and why people fear her so often. So she also uses the gods to instigate fear of her into others.

Jason is rather different from Medea in the way he uses the gods. He uses the gods when he is truly asking for help or was helped from a situation, like in his conversation with Medea, stating that "Aphrodite and no one else on Heaven or Earth who saved me from my death", in this instance, he uses the god as a "replacement" helper for Medea, trying to convince her that she acted not on her own power, but on the power of Aphrodite. He calls out to help from the gods often in the end of the play too, once he finds out the horrors that Medea has commited, his asking for help and retribution from the gods becomes much more desperate and continuous.