Medea
a tragedy in four acts
- First published:
- 19th century
- Languages: German, English, Spanish
"Medea" by Franz Grillparzer is a tragic play written in the early 19th century. The drama focuses on the tumultuous and vengeful character of Medea, exploring themes of betrayal, love, and revenge as she navigates her strained relationship with her husband Jason, who has abandoned her for another woman. The play offers a deep dive into Medea's psychological turmoil as she grapples with her identity, loyalty, and the consequences of her actions. At the start of the play, we find Medea preparing for a significant action against those she perceives as her betrayers. Set against the backdrop of Corinth, the atmosphere is tense with Medea contemplating the consequences of her past and current grievances. As she speaks with her nurse Gora, she reveals her deep sense of betrayal by Jason, who has chosen another wife despite their shared history and children. The opening scenes depict Medea's emotional struggles and her resolve to reclaim her power and dignity, laying the groundwork for the conflicts and tragic events that will unfold throughout the play. The dynamics between Medea, her servant, and Jason introduce us to the complexity of her character and foreshadow the dramatic repercussions of love turned sour. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Provenance
Why this book is in the catalog
Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Mythology, folklore, and sacred legends.
Controlled discovery queries from openlibrary-historical and project-gutenberg matched “mythological”, “Mythology”, and “mythology”. Retained metadata contains “mythological” in the subject metadata and “Mythology” in the subject metadata.
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- “mythological”· via Project Gutenberg
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- “mythological”· in subject
- “Mythology”· in subject
Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.
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Editions
Open Library reports 7 editions; 2 cataloged here.
| Edition | Date | Publisher | Language | ISBN | Access | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
a tragedy in four acts Open Library record | 1867 | Academy of Music | English | — | No ebook | |
Project Gutenberg electronic edition Project Gutenberg metadata does not identify the source print edition. | 2005-04-01 | Project Gutenberg | German | — | Public domain (USA) |
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Identifiers & provenance
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Identifiers
- Open Library work
- Project Gutenberg
Cataloged from
- Open LibraryOL1452017W (opens in a new tab)
- Project Gutenberg7945 (opens in a new tab)
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Cataloging notes
- Open Library reports 7 editions; this snapshot catalogs one representative edition and preserves work-level ISBN, date, and publisher aggregates.
- Original print publication date and source edition are absent from Project Gutenberg metadata.
- Catalog id
- openlibrary-work:OL1452017W
- Edition coverage
- Multi source partial
- Retrieved











