Medea

Zeus the father knows

What I have done for you, 

and how you’ve treated me.

Ah, the Greeks. They sure knew how to write a tragedy and perhaps my favourite one of all is Euripides' Medea. 

I saw this play on a mandatory school outing when I was sixteen. Now I saw many a play on school outings, but very few of them managed to leave any sort of impression. The year I turned sixteen was a big one for me. I changed schools and enrolled into an art school, it was located in Antwerp so I also transferred from a small town to the big city. I don't know wether it was my new school's staff that made better programming choices, or the fact that they had a wider variety to choose from because they were located in the city. Or maybe it was just because I was more receptive because I was so much happier there, but the above mentioned handfull of plays that have stayed with me through the years were all seen during my two years in Antwerp. I saw both Medea and adaptations of Shakespeare's Othello and King Lear back then, and those plays still have a special place in my heart.

Now, back to Medea. Married to ancient Greece's number one dickhead Jason, this was truly a women scorned. And as one other important historical |playwright| righfully learned us; "hell hath no fury" like that. She's most commonly known for mudering her own children just to get back at that no good husband of hers (seriously, he's the worst, not a fan), but that's off course a gross oversimplification of events and does the play no justice whatsoever. Those who'd like to read up on Medea, thanks to the wonderfull world of the internets, you can also read it |online|. Finally, what better way to sum things up then with another quote from the play itself :)

How frightening is resentment

how difficult to cure, 

When lovers hurl past love 

at one another's hate.