Great Ideas of Philosophy

of the mystery of earth itself impels her movements, has her sacrifice her sons to return them to theearth, to revive the cycle and have it conclude more satisfactorily.4. In a key moment, as she kisses and caresses the children she is about to murder, Medea describes herown dilemma without being able to alter it:Go, leave me; I cannot bear to see you any longer.Overcome by grief, now I understand what I am about to do;Passion—that cause of our most dire woes—Has vanquished my rational power.5. Euripides develops characters more accessible than the Olympians: the mysterious and powerful butjilted woman, cheated by her opportunistic and aggressive husband, who finds “honor” chiefly inexternals. Medea’s impulses spring from beneath the earth; his, from what is above it.6. Perhaps because this is a rather modern saga, many of Euripedes’s contemporary critics thought it wasuninstructive. It didn’t accomplish what they regarded as the mission of theatre—not to depict theentities we are but to show us how good character leads to good ends. Euripides understood thetension between the earthly, chthonic life as it is lived and the ideal realm of moral imperatives.C. We also find in Euripides, and in nearly all the Greek dramatists, the central canon that character isdestiny.1. The word nomos is pivotal here. As understood in the vocabulary of the ancient philosopher, nomos isnot what is merely customary, but what is lawful, as in the very laws of nature. And in this same age,in the context of law and society, nomos, again, is not merely the customary practices but what isutterly binding as a legal precept.2. How are we to understand the law? Is the law something naturally right? Is it something imposed?Does it arise from our very nature? Is it counter to our nature?3. Medea’s crime is “unnatural,” but being driven by passion is natural. It is possible to recognize thatyou have passed beyond reason and be unable to stop yourself.D. Medea is one of the commanding women of the ancient Greek world, a group that includes Aphrodite,Athena, Antigone, Andromache, the Theban women, Clytemnestra, Penelope, and others.1. Despite their actual position of reclusive subservience in the ancient world, women are portrayed withgreatness by the ancient Greek dramatists.2. This prominence in literature seems to be a recognition of the power of Eros, the ancientunderstanding that what brings men and women together is not just a creative force, not just somethingthat brings about life and repopulates the world, but also a powerfully destructive force. Because whatwe will do at the bidding of Eros is what Medea does.III. Nomos as custom, nomos as law, and nature (physis) begin to merge and diverge as the classical world facesincreasing complexity of thought and practice. The story of Antigone illustrates.A. Where Medea surrenders to her passion, Antigone’s passion reaches a universal principle.1. Antigone violates Creon’s order not to bury her dead brother out of her conviction that nomos—thelaw of the land—is more ancient than the orders of kings and that her duty to bury her brother is auniversal one; a later age will call it natural law.2. Beneath all our allegiances to king and custom is a deeper allegiance to nature that we must have inorder for there to be kings and customs. To this allegiance, Antigone subscribes.B. Medea’s passion is a form of madness in which reason is surrendered: a form of ignorance. Antigone’spassion is akin to knowledge. Antigone knows herself: She knows what she should do, the wishes of kingsnotwithstanding. She doesn’t want to have to do it, hates the idea of dying for it, but she does it.IV. Both Greek drama and Greek philosophy would propose “Know thyself.” The resulting knowledge wasscarcely reassuring. Even if we are careful, wise, and moderate and avoid hubris, dreadful things often befallus. Philosophy will have to address this tragic dilemma at the core of existence.©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership 13