Background to Medea Lars Von Trier, dir. 1988

1. Background to MedeaLars Von Trier, dir. 1988 Roger Macfarlane Classics

2. Jason and the Argonauts (1966) Zoe Caldwell as Medea (1982)

3. The Golden Fleece Googlemaps, Aegean and Euxine Seas

4. Daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis As “other” as you can get Like other girls from Greek myth Unlike any other woman in Greek myth Euripides’ Medea is supercharged with sexual tension, frightening witchcraft, rhetorical verve Medea escaping, Lucanian calyx, c. 400 BC, Sotheby’s

5. Hera and Aphrodite cause Medea to fall for Jason Pretty dastardly… pawn of the goddesses Her help was invaluable to Jason She ran off with the handsome stranger … in his prime. John W. Waterhouse, “Jason and Medea” (1907), private collection

6. Medea chooses Jason over family Helping Jason win Golden Fleece is tantamount to treason: handing over the national treasure By brutally deceiving her own brother, Apsyrtus, and butchering his body, Medea seals herself to the Argonauts Jason presents the Fleece to Pelias, ca. 340 BC, Apulian crater, Louvre, Paris

7. Jason returns home to Iolchis with the Golden Fleece… and a foreign girl Pelias renegs on the deal… Medea helps Jason get his desserts This leads to banishment in Corinth Medea and Pelias on ca. 470 BC crater, British Museum E163

8. Glauke is a catalyst for change Euripides has Glauke appear only in limited role Von Trier amplifies her role considerably: “Medea and Glauce cannot both remain here.” “Glauke” means something like “sparkling” … “Your name means “nymph”. Some versions call her “Creusa”, which means “princess” Glauke admires Medea’s gift, Dolon Painter, ca. 390 BC, Apulian, Louvre, Paris

9. Aegeus, king of Athens, offers Medea asylum Medea nearly tricks Aegeus into poisoning his own son Theseus Banished finally by Aegeus, Medea flees to Persia and becomes the eponymous foundress of the kingdom of Media. Eventually, Medea returns to Colchis and dies. Aegeus meets his son, Sisyphus Painter, ca. 410 BC, Apulian, British Museum GR 1856.12-26.3

10. Medea’s escape

11. Dramatic conventions Euripides 431 Medea Lars Von Trier’s 1988 Medea Spare casting Intimate cinematic style foregrounds violent moments and obviates dialogue Mobile perspective • Limited cast • Chorus comments and structures action • Violence occurs offstage …reported through messengers • Female characters are aberrant … either positive or negative • Limited spatial economy • Deus ex machina

12. Euripides and his audience Von Trier and his audience The 20th-century audience knows Medea “how could she?” • The Athenian audience knew Medea’s story… • “three corpses”

13. Jason Jason fights Harryhausen’s skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts (1966) Jason gets coughed up by the serpent that guards the Golden Fleece, 5th BC kylix, Vatican 16545

14. Glauke “Medea Sarcophagus”, Antikensammlung, Berlin

15. Creon “Medea Sarcophagus”, Antikensammlung, Berlin

16. Medea’s escape “Medea Sarcophagus”, Antikensammlung, Berlin

17. Medea Wm Wetmore Storey, Medea (1864-1868) Metropolitan Museum, NY

18. Medea’s escape

19. Some Questions • What is the significance of water imagery throughout the film? Especially in her contacts with Aegeus, water seems always to divide and join. • Why is the film-quality so grainy? Is it a device to “classicize” the narrative, like some old B&W artifact? • Those huge landscape shots: Is Medea herself larger than the power of the barren landscape she roams? • Does Glauke understand the stakes of seducing Jason? Does Creon? Does Jason? How does the director convey this tension? • Is there Abraham imagery in Von Trier’s hill-top setting of the children’s death? • That horse, those children, the innocent… Who is culpable? How does the director ask/answer this? Next time I watch Lars Von Trier’s Medea, I’m going to try to figure answers to these questions. From the 1988 Danish/German television broadcast.