Médée: Pierre Corneille’s Medea (1635) in English translation

An English-language translation of Pierre Corneille’s first tragedy, Médée (1635) Little remembered in the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece is Médée, the woman without whom his quest would have been a failure and his life forfeit. When Jason betrays his wife to marry the daughter of the king of Corinth, the very meanings of gratitude, indebtedness, criminality, and love—maternal, paternal, filial, romantic—are held up for scrutiny. Médée (1635) was Pierre Corneille’s first tragedy; but perhaps because we assume it derivative of versions by Euripides and Seneca, it is little known in the English-speaking Americas. This volume offers readers a chance to explore the great seventeenth-century French dramatist’s exploration of Médée’s righteous prowess, his de-gendering of warriorhood and heroism, and his challenge to the purity of justice and human motivations.