Medea 3: The Immortal (with Edith Hall)

Mary and Charlotte explore Medea’s afterlife, from Ancient Athens into the 21st Century - the way her story continues to beguile and challenge us. To do this, they are joined by Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at Durham University and renowned author of many books including the recent Medea: A Life (Yale University Press, 2026)

Edith describes her life-long relationship with Medea - from watching the same 1970s production that changed Mary’s life - to this year’s book. Having two children along the way certainly changed her perspective. Ultimately, she understands Medea as a narcissist, unable to connect with anybody’s needs but her own. 

Edith also talks about the challenge Medea has always presented to theatre-goers. She believes the reason why Euripides’ play ‘lost’ the Athens theatre competition in 431BC is because Medea knows she is about to do wrong, but does it anyway (tragic heroes are normally convinced of their righteousness until the last moment). With the rise of European nationalism in the 19th Century, directors became interested in the outsider-exile quality of Medea’s story, casting her as a Jewish woman then, in the 20th Century, as a black woman. Feminist (and anti-feminist) readings of Medea date back to the 1850s when changes to the divorce laws in the UK gave women greater rights. 

Today, actors and directors have to answer big questions about whether she is experiencing psychosis or a cold schemer. Or both. Edith describes her experience working with the legendary Helen McCrory on her National Theatre Production in 2016. 

Further reading: 

In addition to the bibliography we gave for our first two episodes on Medea . . .  

For Robert Brough’s burlesque on Medea, see E. Richardson’s article, “‘A conjugal lesson’” in the journal Ramus 2003. The text of the burlesque itself is available online: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=iau.31858023958535&seq=3

The career of Amy Levy is discussed by Linda Hunt Beckman, Amy Levy (Ohio UP, 2000)

The Cambridge Greek Play has a really good website, with plenty of detail on its history: https://www.cambridgegreekplay.classics.cam.ac.uk/ For the production of Medea we mentioned, see https://www.cambridgegreekplay.classics.cam.ac.uk/past-plays-0/medea-1974 

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