Euripides’ Medea is not merely a revenge play, but also a tragedy exploring the mechanism through which deep-rooted anguish and desperate pain result in meaninglessness and self-destruction, when human discourse excludes the reality of devastating destructive passion. The last words of the Trophos in the Parodos and the full wording of the choral songs, mainly in the first stasimon, drive the spectator to seek a kind of language that articulates the full meaning of words, thus curing human beings from pain and saving the endangered society from its destructive forces. Kreon, used as the embodiment of authoritative speech, which excludes the otherness of pain, and Jason, used as the embodiment of false language, which excludes meaning, both treat pain through exile, instead of empathy and compassion, and therefore contrive the annihilation of human subjectivity. Drawing on the radical constructive themes of exile and refuge, murder and rescue, and on the repeated motives of home, womanhood, Symplegades and sea trip, Euripides explores the dynamics of pain and the striving for subjectivity and proposes to his male audience: reflection of meaning, compassion in feeling, and inclusion of otherness in a new meaningful consciousness, which provide the merit of salvation for both individuals and the polis.
